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LIFE AND TIMES 



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JAMES MADISON. 




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HISTORY 



OF THE 



LIFE AND TIMES 



OF 



JAMES MADISON. 



By WILLIAM C. RIVES. 



VOLUME I. 



SECOND EDITION. 



BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. 



MDCCC LXXIII. 



EL34-& 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

William Cabell Rives, 

In the Clerk's Office of the United States Court for the Eastern District of 

Virginia. 






Pressworfe by John Wilson and Son. 



y i\ 



PREFACE. 



The following work has been undertaken from 
no ambition of authorship, to which the ac- 
tive and diversified pursuits of the writer's life 
present every possible discouragement. It was 
felt, however, that some account of the charac- 
ter, opinions, and actions of the man who con- 
tributed more largely and effectively, though 
unobtrusively, to the formation of the institu- 
tions under which we live than any of his con- 
temporaries, and who was the elective head of 
the Government at a period of external difficul- 
ties and trials which gave the United States 
definitively a rank among nations, was a deside- 
ratum in the history of the country. 

Many valuable and authentic materials for 
such a work having recently come into the 
hands of the writer by a public charge confided 
to him, and others being placed at his disposal 
by private courtesy, he was led to consider it a 
duty, so far as his other occupations would per- 



l? 



VI PREFACE. 

mit, to attempt the execution of a task, which 
surmises without foundation represented him to 
have entered upon, at a much earlier period. 
It is only within the last two years that his 
thoughts have been turned to the subject ; and 
his application to it during that period has met 
with almost daily interruptions, and sometimes 
long suspensions, from the necessary calls of 
other duties. 

The first volume of the work is now submitted 
to the public. It belongs more, perhaps, to the 
department of History than of Biography, though 
partaking of the character of both. From the 
nature of Mr. Madison's career, it was impossible 
to isolate him from the public events of the 
times in which he lived and acted ; and a copi- 
ous development of contemporary transactions 
has been often found indispensable to display, in 
its proper light, the part he bore in those trans- 
actions. We have thus been led, it will be seen, 
into a fuller history, than is probably elsewhere 
to be found, of the Congress of the Confedera- 
tion during the four years Mr. Madison was an 
active member of that body (from 1780 to 
the definitive Treaty of Peace,) — embracing the 
most important period of the War of the Revo- 
lution, and deeply interesting passages in our 



PREFACE. vii 

political and diplomatic annals, which have hith- 
erto received comparatively but little illustration. 

In this and every other portion of the work, 
we have relied only on original, and, in some 
instances, unpublished documents ; and in re- 
mounting to the sources of our History, apocry- 
phal versions of it, which have become current 
by repetitions upon trust from one writer to 
another, have not unfrequently been rectified by 
the lights of contemporary evidence. 

In reviewing these great scenes of our early 
national struggles, we have not felt ourselves at 
liberty to suppress anything which the truth of 
history required to be uttered or disclosed. And 
on the other hand, we have not been unmindful, 
we trust, of the obligations of justice and candor 
due to all the illustrious actors of the time. We 
have endeavoured, hi forming our judgments, to 
guard against every influence but that of truth, 
and to give way to no impressions but such as 
the facts transmitted to us would, of themselves, 
naturally produce upon every unbiassed mind ; 
keeping always before our eyes the great moral 
law of History — Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne 
qidd veri turn audeat. 

September, 1859. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Connection of History and Biography — Birth and Family of 
Madison — Pioneers of Virginia — Education — Princeton Col- 
let — Excitements produced by early Disputes between the 
Colonies and Mother Country — Dr. Witherspoon — Distin- 
guished College Associates 1-26 



CHAPTER H. 

Madison leaves Princeton and returns to his Father's Residence 
in Virginia — His Studies and Pursuits at Home — Corres- 
pondence with his College Friend, Bradford of Philadelphia 
— Religious Sentiments — Traits of Personal Character — 
Progress of Controversy with the Mother Country — Persecu- 
tion of Baptists in Virginia excites Indignation of Madison — 
Early Champion of Religious Freedom — Established Church 
in Virginia — Conduct and Influence of its Members in the 
Contest for Independence 27-55 

CHAPTER III. 

Proceedings in Virginia on receiving Intelligence of the Boston 
Port Bill — House of Burgesses dissolved by the Governor — 
War with the Indians — First Convention in Virginia — Con- 
tinental Congress meets at Philadelphia — Mr. Madison's Ac- 
count of the Military Preparations commenced in Virginia, in 
view of a possible Conflict with the Mother Country — How 
far Patrick Henry's Resolution for arming and disciplining 
the Militia influenced these Preparations — Patriotism and In- 



X CONTENTS. 

fluence of the ancient Landed Interest in Virginia — County 
Committees — Mr. Madison Member of the one for his County — 
Nature and Extent of the Cavalier Element in the Population 
of Virginia — Character of the People of Virginia at the Era 
of the Revolution 56-88 

CHAPTER IV. 

Battle of Lexington — Lord Dunmore's Removal of the Gunpow- 
der from 'Williamsburg — Assembling of the Independent Com- 
panies at Fredericksburg — Patrick Henry's Expedition to 
reclaim the Gunpowder — Address of Thanks to him from the 
County Committee of Orange drawn by Mr. Madison — Spir- 
ited Proceedings of the Committee in the Case of the Rev. Mr. 
Winorate — Lord Dunmore again convokes the Assembly — His 
Altercation with the House of Burgesses — The Governor quits 
the Palace and takes up his Residence on board a Ship of War 
— Protest and Closing Scene of the last House of Burgesses 
in Virginia — Another Convention meets at Richmond — Its 
Proceedings — Meeting of the Second Continental Congress — • 
Army raised for the Defence of American Liberty — Intention 
of National Independence disclaimed — Sincerity of these Pro- 
fessions called in question by European Writers — Mr. Madi- 
son's Testimony on the Subject — Subsequent Measures of the 
King and Parliament bring on the Issue of Independence — 
Public Mind in Virginia ripened for the Event by the iniqui- 
tous Conduct of the Royal Governor — New Convention elected 
in Virginia — Mr. Madison chosen a Member 89-119 



6 



CHAPTER V. 

Proceedings of the Virginia Convention of 1776 — Instructions to 
their Delegates in Congress to propose Declaration of Inde- 
pendence — Authorship of the Instructions — Select Committee 
to prepare a Declaration of Rights and Plan of Government — 
Mr. Madison a Member of the Committee — George Mason 
Author of original Draught of Declaration of Rights — Amended 
in its last Article on Motion of Mr. Madison — Difference be- 
tween Religious Toleration and Religious Freedom — Deliber- 
ations of Select Committee on Plan of Government — Mr. John 
Adams suggests one — Another proposed by Mr. Braxton, Del- 



CONTENTS. XI 

egate in Congress from Virginia — Letter of Patrick Henry on 
the Subject — Plan presented by a Member of the Select 
Committee — Resemblance between it and Constitution finally 
adopted — Principal Features of the Virginia Constitution of 
177G — Republican Government as understood by the wise and 
patriotic Men who framed that Constitution — Distinction be- 
tween a Republic and a Democracy — Question as to the 
Authorship of the original Plan submitted to the Select Com- 
mittee — Letter and Memorandum of Mr. Madison on the 
Subject — Distinguished Lead of George Mason — Patrick 
Henry elected first Republican Governor — His Testimony in 
favor of the Constitution of 1776 — Adjournment of the Con- 
vention 120-167 

CHAPTER VI. 

Military Reverses of the second Campaign of the Revolutionary 
"War — First. Session of the new Republican Legislature of 
Virginia — Measures for extending the Benefits of Religious 
Freedom — Abolition of Entails — Provision for the General 
Revision of the Laws — First Acquaintance of Jefferson and 
Madison — Energetic Resolutions of the Virginia Legislature 
for the Conduct of the War — The Tide of Disaster turned 
by the Daring and Heroism of Washington at Trenton and 
Princeton — Election of a new Legislature in Virginia — Mr. 
Madison loses his Election by his Respect for the Purity of 
the Elective Franchise — Chosen by the General Assembly to 
be a Member of the Council of State — Correspondence be- 
tween him and the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith — Relations 
with Governor Henry — Important Agency of the Governor 
and Council in expediting the Levies of Troops for the Gen- 
eral Defence — Liberal Spirit manifested by Virginia for the 
Assistance of her sister States — Expedition and brilliant Suc- 
cess of George Rogers Clarke under the Auspices of Virginia — 
British Ministry induced by the Capture of Burgoyne's Army 
to seek Reconciliation with the American States — Proceed- 
ings of the Royal Commissioners in America — Evacuation of 
Philadelphia, and Battle of Monmouth — Treaty of Alliance 
with France — Efforts to detach America from it -* Opera- 
tions against the Southern States — Reduction of Georgia — 
Invasion of Virginia — Mr. Jefferson Successor to Governor 
vol. I. & 



Xii CONTENTS. 

Henry — Virginia ratifies Treaty of Alliance with France by 
her own independent Act — Negotiations with Spain — De- 
mands made by that Power as Conditions of her Cooperation in 
the War— Resolutions of the Legislature of Virginia with Re- 
gard to the Navigation of the Mississippi — Her Remonstrance 
to Congress on the subject of the Western Territory — Mr. 
Madison chosen one of her Delegates in the Congress of the 
Confederation 168-208 



CHAPTER VII. 

Confederate Government the first and natural Want of the So- 
cial State in America — Successive Stages of its Development 
— Extent and Detail of the Powers of Congress under the 
Articles of Confederation — Number and Character of its 
Members — Earnest Appeal of Washington on Behalf of the 
National Service — Colleagues of Madison in Congress — 
Gloomy Condition of Public Affairs at the Period of his En- 
trance on the National Theatre — Causes of the Public Dis- 
tress — Financial Embarrassments — Striking Letter of Mr. 
Madison on the Subject — Committee appointed by Congress 
to confer with the Commander-in-chief — Military Preparations 
and Events — French Land and Naval Forces arrive in the 
United States — Reduced to Inactivity by the Naval Superi- 
ority of the Enemy — Disasters of the Campaign — The Ne- 
cessity of increased Vigor and Foresight — Views of Mr. 
Madison with regard to both Financial and Political Reform — 
His Constitutional Creed — Measures adopted by Congress — 
Representation addressed to the King of France — Special 
Mission of Colonel John Laurens 209-234 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Negotiations with Spain — Mr. Madison Chairman of a Commit- 
tee to prepare Instructions to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay in 
support of the Claims of the United States to Western Terri- 
tory, and the free Navigation of the Mississippi River — In- 
structions drawn by him unanimously adopted — Outline of 
the Arguments and Topics presented — Congress afterwards 
induced to change temporarily their Instructions with regard 
to the free Navigation of the Mississippi — Pressure of Georgia 



CONTENTS. x iii 

and South Carolina upon Virginia to change her former Instruc- 
tions to her Delegates — The Change deprecated and deplored 
by Mr. Madison — He corrects a Misrepresentation of the Con- 
duct of Mr. Jay — Ultimate Return to the Principles of the 
original Instructions — Measures of Internal Policy — Urgent 
Motives for completing the Ratification of the Articles of Con- 
federation — Successive Ratification of them by all the States 
except Maryland — Grounds of her persevering Opposition — 
Jealousy of the Territorial Claims of Virginia — Foundation 
and legal Validity of those Claims — Virginia willing to make ■ 
a liberal Cession for the Sake of Conciliation and Harmony — 
Opinions of her leading Statesmen, Madison, Pendleton, and 
Mason — She finally proffers a Cession on Conditions submitted 
to Congress — Maryland authorizes her Delegates to sign the 
Articles of Confederation — Ratification completed, and pro- 
claimed by Congress 235-266 

CHAPTER IX. 

Plan of Military Operations discussed in Congress — Critical Sit- 
uation of the Southern States — Colonel Benjamin Harrison 
sent by Virginia to represent to Congress the Necessity of more 
liberal Arrangements for the Defence of the South — Mr. Mad- 
ison gives his zealous Aid to the Mission of Colonel Harrison — 
Measures adopted by Congress on the Occasion — Virginia be- 
comes the principal Theatre of the War by the Invasion of 
Cornwallis — Efeduced to great Exhaustion by her Exertions in 
Aid of the Southern States — Long-continued Inattention of 
Congress, and apparent Indifference of Northern States, give 
rise to strong Feelings of Dissatisfaction — Energetic Remon- 
strance prepared for Adoption of the Legislature — Withdrawn 
on Intelligence of the Result of Colonel Harrison's Mission — 
General Lafayette sent to Virginia — Legislature dispersed by 
Tarlton — Proposition for a Dictator — General Nelson elected 
Governor — Able and skilful Conduct of Lafayette — Washing- 
ton and Rochambeau march with the Allied Army to the Aid 
of Virginia — Letter of Mr. Madison describing their Passage 
through Philadelphia — Count De Grasse, with the French 
Fleet, arrives in the Chesapeake — Siege of York — Surrender 
of Cornwallis 267-294 



x i v CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

Proceedings of Congress on receiving Intelligence of the Surren- 
der of the British Army at Yorktown — Washington urges 
energetic Preparations for another Campaign — Recommenda- 
tion warmly seconded by Mr. Madison — Congress makes fur- 
ther Calls tor Troops and Money on the States — Frequent 
Disregard of these Requisitions — Necessity of invigorating the 
Federal Authority enforced by Washington — Proposition to 
invest Con<ress with coercive Power — Views of Mr. Madison 
on the Subject — Colonel Hamilton brings forward a Project, 
in a Communication addressed by him to a Member of Con- 
gress — Remarks on his Scheme — Policy of completing the 
Ratification of the Articles of Confederation rather than at- 
tempt, in the midst of War, the Introduction of a new Sys- 
tem — Congress applies to the States for Power to levy Du- 
ties on Foreign Imports — Mr. Madison zealously sustains the 
Application — His Letter on the Subject 295-313 

CHAPTER XI. 

Proceedings of Congress for settling Conditions of Peace — In- 
structions agreed upon and Minister appointed in 1779, with 
reference to Negotiations under Mediation of Spain — That 
Mediation proves abortive — Spain becomes a Party to the War 
in Europe, and Empress of Russia and Emperor of Austria offer 
their Mediation in 1781 — New Instructions giv^n, and addi- 
tional Ministers appointed — Motives and Policy of Instruc- 
tions in submitting American Ministers to Counsels of France 

. — Statement of Mr. Madison — England, persisting in treating 
United Slates as Subjects in a State of Rebellion, declines 
Preliminaries of Mediating Powers — France accedes in first 
instance, but, apprised of Ground taken by England, declares 
Inutility of proceeding till that Ground is abandoned — De- 
bates in British Parliament upon receiving News of Surrender 
of Army at Yorktown — Resignation of Lord North and Dis- 
solution of his Ministry — Administration of Lord Rockingham 
make vague Overtures for Peace through Sir Guy Carleton in 
America and secret Agents at Paris — Mr. Madison's Views 
of those Overtures — Renewed Attempt to separate United 
States and France, indignantly repelled by both — Division in 



CONTENTS. XV 

English Cabinet — Death of Lord Rockingham — New Admin- 
istration under Lord Shelburne disclose Views adverse to Rec- 
ognition of American Independence — Firm Declaration of 
Congress — Responsive Resolutions of Legislature of Virginia 
— Spirit of the Times as manifested in their Proceedings 
against Arthur Lee, Delegate in Congress, suspected of Dis- 
affection to French Alliance 314-343 



CHAPTER XH. 

Negotiations for Peace opened at Pans — Questions to be ad- 
justed, National Independence, Boundaries, Fisheries — Mr. 
Madison succeeds in his Efforts in Congress to place the last 
two on the same Footing in the Negotiation — Provisional 
Articles agreed upon and concluded between the British and 
American Commissioners — Not communicated to the French 
Government until after their Signature — Dissatisfaction in 
France at Conduct of American Ministers — Their Despatches 
laid before Congress — Unfounded Suspicions of the Sincerity of 
France manifested by Mr. Jay and Mr. Adams — Recommenda- 
tion of Secretary of Foreign Affairs — Debates in Congress — 
Bold and manly Speech of Mr. Madison — Report of Commit- 
tee on Despatches — ■ Letter addressed by Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs to American Commissioners — Reflections on the French 
Alliance — Services and Conduct of France in the War of In- 
dependence — Just and noble Sentiment of Lafayette . 344-376 

CHAPTER XIII. 

News received of the Signing at Paris of Preliminaries of a gen- 
eral Peace — Cessation of Hostilities proclaimed by Congress — 
Question raised as to Necessity of a formal Ratification of the 

Provisional Articles between Great Britain and the United 

i 

States — Also as to the Propriety of an immediate Release of 
Prisoners — Report of Committee on these Questions by Mr. 
Madison, Colonel Hamilton dissenting — Improvident Decis- 
ion of Congress — Discontents of the Army — Petition and Ad- 
dress of Officers to Congress — Interview between Deputies 
of the Army and Grand Committee of Congress — Report of 
Grand Committee — Difference of Opinion on subject of Half- 
Pay and Commutation — Mr. Madison vindicates the Claims of 



xvi CONTENTS. 

the Army — Its Discontents increased by the Delays of Con- 
gress — Newburgh Address — Measures adopted by Washing- 
ton — IIi> Address to the Meeting of Officers — Ability and 
Magnanimity of hia Conduct — Mr. Madison's Account of the 
Impression produced by it in Congress — Interference of civil 
Creditors to foment Discontents of the Army sternly reproved 
by Washington — Correspondence between Colonel Hamilton 
and Washington on the Subject — Conduct of Mr. Morris, 
Superintendent of Finance, gives rise to Dissatisfaction — 
Sentiments of Mr. Madison 377-408 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Efforts of Congress to establish a System of General Revenue — 
Result of Application to the States for Power to levy Imposts 
— Rhode Island refuses — Virginia, after granting, repeals her 
Grant — Mr. Madison annoyed and embarrassed by the Oppo- 
sition of his State — Determines, nevertheless, to pursue the 
Convictions of his own Judgment in Favor of a System of gen- 
eral Revenue — Delivers his Views in an able and patriotic 
Speech — Moves a Modification of the Proposition before Con- 
gress — His Modification adopted — Subject referred to a select 
Committee, of which he is a Member — His Views in the 
Committee — Report made in Conformity to them — Outline 
of the Report — Finally adopted by Congress, with slight Vari- 
ations — Mr. Madison Chairman of Committee to prepare an 
Address to the States in Support of the Plan agreed to — 
Luminous and elocpuent Address drawn by him, and adopted 
by Congress — Sketch of it — Colonel Hamilton opposed to 
the Plan submitted by Congress to the States — Reasons of 
his Opposition — General Washington, in his Circular Letter 
to the States, warmly commends the Address, and urges them 
to adopt the Plan submitted by Congress — Distinctive Fea- 
tures of political Systems of Hamilton and Madison begin to 
disclose themselves — Reception of Revenue Plan by Legisla- 
ture of Virginia — Note on Accusations against Mr. Madison 
by Biographer of Colonel Hamilton 409-443 

CHAPTER XV. 
Questions in Congress growing out of Cession of Northwest Ter- 



CONTENTS. XVU 

ritory by Virginia — Influence of Land Companies — Geograph- 
ical and political Combinations against the Claims of Virginia — 
Letters of Mr. Madison with regard to them — Proceedings 
and Report of the Committee to which the Subject Avas referred 

— Attempt to set up adverse Title in New York — Researches 
and Labors of Mr. Madison in Defence of Virginia Title — Alli- 
ance between Adversaries of the territorial Rights of Virginia 
and Partisans of the Independence of Vermont — Mr. Madi- 
son's Account of the State of Parties in Congress on these two 
Questions — He predicts the ultimate Acceptance of the Terms 
of Virginia, if the State remain firm and prudent — Mr. With- 
erspoou's Resolutions — New Committee appointed to consider 
Cession of Virginia — Remonstrance of New Jersey — Design 
of Adversaries of Virginia to limit her Western Boundary, if 
possible, to the Alleghany Mountains — Final Compromise, and 
Acceptance of the Cession by Congress — Influence of Mr. 
Madison in accomplishing the Result — History of Vermont 
Question — Proceedings of Congress upon it — New York and 
New Hampshire resist Claim of Vermont to be considered an 
independent State — Views of Mr. Madison on the Subject — 
Powerful Combination of Interests in Congress favorable to In- 
dependence of Vermont, and her Admission as a State into the 
Confederacy — Acts of Violence committed by her Authorities 
prevent Consummation of the Plan — Compelled to await the 
regular Exercise of the Power granted by the Constitution of 
1788, before she is finally admitted into the Union . . . 444-478 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Congress, after Provisional Articles of Peace, determine to dismiss 
a Portion of the Army on Furlough — Orderly and praiseworthy 
Conduct of Main Body of the Army on the Occasion — Com- 
plaints and Mutiny of a Detachment of the Pennsylvania Line 

— They insult the Executive Council and Congress — Mr. 
Madison's Statement of the Affair — Congress adjourn from 
Philadelphia to Princeton — Washington indignant at the Con- 
duct of the Mutineers — Sends General Howe to reduce and 
punish them — Their Submission — Congress hold their Sit- 
tings in the College Buildings at Princeton — Proceedings on 
fixing a permanent as well as temporary Place of Meeting — 
Two Federal Towns to be established for the alternate Resi- 



xviii CONTENTS. 

dence of Congress — Mr. Madison's Views on Question of 
Jurisdiction over Seat of Government — General Washington 
invited by Congress to Princeton — His Reception — Recep- 
tion and public Audience of Dutch Minister — Delays in 
Conclusion of Definitive Treaty of Peace — Change of Admin- 
istration in England — Coalition of Mr. Fox and Lord North — 
Evasions of Coalition Ministry in Negotiations at Pai'is — Dis- 
trust and l.'neasiness of Congress — They reject Proposition for 
disbanding the Army and for farther Measures in Execution of 
Provisional Articles — Definitive Treaty at last concluded — 
Congress vote Thanks to the Army, and issue Proclamations for 
their Discharge and for a Day of Public Thanksgiving — Mr. 
Madison's Service in the old Congress closes 479-511 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Review of Mr. Madison's Career in old Congress — Complex and 
diversified Questions, foreign and domestic, before that Body, 
during Period of his Service — Distinction acquired by him — 
General Confidence and Support of his Constituents — A Party 
hostile to him — His Constancy and unintermitted Attention to 
his Public Duties — Pecuniary Sacrifices — Nature of Provision 
made by Virginia for Support of her Delegates in Congress — 
Mr. Madison's Social Habits — His Humor — A tender Attach- 
ment — Enters upon the Study of the Law, after his Return to 
Virginia — Correspondence on public Questions with Friends 
who consulted him — A favorite Project for their future Lives 
urged by Mr. Jefferson — Prepares himself for the great Work 
of Constitutional Reform by diligent Researches into the His- 
tory of Confederacies, ancient and modern — Summoned again 
from his Retirement into the Legislature of the State — Charac- 
ter of that Body — Its Parties — Its Leaders — Patrick Henry 

— Richard Henry Lee 512-539 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Motives of Madison for returning to the State Legislature — Made 
Chairman of Committee on Commerce — Measures for promot- 
ing Commerce of the State — Concentration to particular Ports 

— Mr. Madison proposes Arrangement with Maryland respect- 



CONTENTS. xix 

ing Jurisdiction and Navigation of the Potomac — Resolution 
moved by him for Appointment of Joint Commissioners of the 
two States, remote Cause of the Federal Convention — He 
introduces preparatory Measures for entering upon the Revis- 
ion of the Laws — Sustains a Proposition for Revision of State 
Constitution — His Views on that Question — Proceedings of 
the Legislature upon the Subject — Measures affecting Relig- 
ious Freedom — Assessment proposed, but not acted on — 
Question of Incorporation of Religious Societies — Mr. Madison 
opposed to both — Questions of Federal Policy — Mr. Henry 
favors invigoration of Federal Authority, with coercive Power 
in Congress — Resolution passed for vesting in Congress Power 
to prohibit Trade with Nations refusing Reciprocity — Execu- 
tion of Treaty of Peace with regard to British Debts — Op- 
posed by Mr. Henry — Proposition of Mr. Madison on the 
Subject — Honors to Washington — Mr. Madison takes a lead- 
ing part in them — His eloquent Inscription for the Statue — 
General Washington and Mr. Madison exert themselves to ob- 
tain a Grant to Paine for his Revolutionary Services — Subse- 
quent Ingratitude of Paine 540-575 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Occupations of Mr. Madison during Recess of the Legislature — 
Able Letter to Mr. Jefferson on Right to Navigation of the 
Misssissippi — Sets out on a Tour to the North — Meets with 
the Marquis Lafayette — Accompanies him to an Indian Treaty 
in the Western part of New York — Incidents at the Treaty — 
Impressions of Lafayette's Character — Reassembling of the 
Legislature — Mr. Madison made Chairman of Committee of 
Courts of Justice — Reports Plan for establishing Courts of 
Assize — Advocates successfully the Enactment of a Law by 
Virginia to repress and punish Enterprises of her Citizens 
against Nations with which the United States are at Peace — 
This Act the first Example of American Legislation to punish 
those Offences against the Law of Nations now known under 
.the Name of Filibustering — Renewed Effort for the Execu- 
tion of the Treaty of Peace respecting British Debts — Prop- 
osition made by Mr. Madison at the late Session again brought 
forward — Improved Sentiments of the Legislature with re- 



XX CONTENTS. 

gard to it — Finally lost by a singular Accident — General 
Assessment for Support of Teachers of the Christian Religion 
again proposed - Warmly sustained by Mr. Henry and other 
distinguished Members — Mr. Madison firmly, and almost singly 
in Debate, opposes it — Outline of his powerful Argument, as 
collected from a Fragment among his Papers — Progress of the 
Measure in the House — Bill for incorporating the Episcopal 
Church — Question of Assessment, by the persevering Oppo- 
sition of Mi-. Madison and his Auxiliaries, postponed to the next 
Session of the Legislature, and in the mean Time referred to 
the People for an Expression of their Sense upon it . . 576-610 

CHAPTER XX. 

Visit of Washington and Lafayette to the Legislature of Virginia 
— Addresses to them, and their Replies — Washington takes a 
deep [nterest in the Improvement of the navigable Rivers of 
Virginia, to command the Trade of the West — His able Let- 
ter to Governor Harrison on the Subject laid before the Leg- 
islature — Leading and active Part taken by Mr. Madison in 
Cooperation with him — Washington appointed by the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia a Commissioner to concert with the Legislature 
of Maryland the Provisions of a joint Act for improving and 
extending the Navigation of the Potomac — Repairs to Annap- 
olis — Remarkable Letter addressed by him to Mr. Madison in 
explanation of the Proceedings and Results of his Mission — 
Mr. Madison introduces Measures to carry into full Effect the 
Arrangements agreed upon at Annapolis — Other Measures 
brought forward by Mr. Madison to complete the System of 
Interior Communications for the State — Improvement of James 
River — Communication between Elizabeth River and Albe- 
marle Sound — Reflections of Mr. Madison .upon the vast Im- 
portance and future Consequences of these Public Works — 
Homage rendered by him to Washington's Greatness of Mind 
in so earnestly engaging in them — Brings in a Bill to confer 
upon him, in the Name of the State, a number of Shares in 
the Works authorized — Adjournment of the Legislature — 
Agitation among the People on the Assessment Bill for Sup- 
port of Religious Teachers— Deep Interest felt by Mr. Madi- 
son in the Progress of the Question — His Letters to Mr 



CONTENTS. XXI 

Monroe on the Subject — Prepares "Memorial and Remon- 
strance" against the Assessment, to be circulated among the 
People — Memorial covered with Signatures in every Part of 
the State — It decides forever the Fate of the Proposition 
before the Legislature — Extraordinary Merits of the Paper — 
A Monument in itself of the Genius, Ability, and Love of Lib- 
erty of the Author 611-640 



LIFE AND TIMES \ 



4 




OF 




JAMES MADISON. 



CHAPTER I. 

Connection of History and Biography — Birth and Family of Madi- 
son — Pioneers of Virginia — Education — Princeton College — 
Excitements produced by early Disputes between the Colonies and 
Mother Country — Dr. Witherspoon — Distinguished College Asso- 
ciates. 

Although the Life of a Statesman derives a 
large portion of its interest from the public 
events with which it is associated, yet it would 
be a narrow and mistaken view of the welfare of 
society, and of the philosophy of human affairs, 
which should limit our curiosity and inquiries to 
the mere exterior, and, as it were, professional, 
history of public men. The laws by which the 
Divine Ruler of the universe has decreed an indis- 
soluble connection between public happiness and 
private virtue, whatever apparent exceptions may 
sometimes delude our short-sighted judgments, 

VOL. I. 1 



2 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

never fail in the end to vindicate their supremacy 
and immutability. The great interests of States, 
of Republics especially, are conducted by the 
instrumentality of numerous individual agents ; 
and as these are virtuous, competent, and wise, 
or vicious, faithless, or incapable, the common- 
wealth prospers, or sooner or later falls into ruin 
and decay. 

The personal character and history, then, of 
public men, their moral principles, their intellec- 
tual qualities and attainments, the circumstances 
which have contributed to form and discipline 
them in either respect, become a most important 
branch of historical inquiry, and, by a natural 
and just relation, go hand in hand with the great 
public questions in which they have borne a dis- 
tinguished part. 

Of the statesmen of America, few have had a 
more important agency in the great scenes of 
our national story, both foreign and domestic, 
than James Madison, the fourth President of the 
United States, and none, it is believed, so leading 
a part in the formation and establishment of the 
great constitutional compact of government and 
union which crowned the labors of our revolu- 
tionary fathers, and forms the vital bond of our 
present national existence. An attempt to trace 
liis career, with reference both to its public results 
and the principles and influences which guided 
and controlled it, will, it is hoped, meet with an 
indulgence from the patriotic sympathies of the 



BIRTH AND FAMILY. 3 

country, none the less on account of the extra- 
ordinary modesty of the illustrious actor, which 
ever prevented him from speaking of himself, or 
avowing his own just and indisputable claims. 

James Madison was born on the 16th day of 
March, 1751, at the house of his maternal grand- 
mother, Mrs. Conway, on the northern bank of 
the Rappahannock river, in the county of King 
George, Virginia. The residence of his parents 
was in the county of Orange, fifty or sixty miles 
distant ; but his birth took place during a visit 
of his mother to her ancestral home in the 
" Northern Neck ' of Virginia — a designation 
which was originally, 1 and is still popularly, con- 
fined to the narrow peninsular region lying on 
tide-water between the Potomac and Rappahan- 
nock rivers, and hallowed as the birthplace of a 
long line of illustrious worthies, — the Washing- 
tons, the Lees, the Masons, the Monroes, the 
Jones', and others, — whom it has given, from 
its fruitful bosom, to the service of the country. 
He was thus, from the moment and by the ac- 
cident of his nativity, brought into close prox- 
imity and fellowship with many of those with 
whom he was destined to be afterwards asso- 
ciated in some of the most eventful passages of 
his future life and of the public history. 

His father, bearing the same name with him- 
self, was a large landed proprietor, occupied 

1 See Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. i. p. 352, and vol. in. pp. 26 
and 27. 



4 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

mainly with the care and management of his 
extensive rural concerns. A large landed estate 
in Virginia, consisting of distinct and sometimes 
distant plantations, with the general supervision 
of the agents and laborers employed on each, 
and the negotiations incident to the periodical 
sale of their produce and purchase of their sup- 
plies in remote markets, was a mimic common- 
wealth, with its foreign and domestic relations, 
and its regular administrative hierarchy. It 
called for the constant exercise of vigilance, ac- 
tivity, humanity, sound judgment, and wise econ- 
omy; and was thus a school, both of virtue and 
intelligence, in which many of the patriots of 
that day were trained for public usefulness. It 
does not appear, however, that the father of 
Mr. Madison was ever engaged in political pur- 
suits. He was a leading man in the affairs of his 
county, and held, during the period of the rev- 
olutionary war, the ancient traditional office of 
County Lieutenant, derived from the institutions of 
the mother country, the duties of which he per- 
formed with patriotic zeal and diligence. 

The name and family of Madison are coeval 
with the foundation of the Colony. The pious 
researches of kindred have ascertained that a 
patent was taken out for land "between the 
North and York rivers," on the shores of the 
Chesapeake Bay, as early as 1653, by John Mad- 
ison, who was the father of John, and he the 
father of Ambrose, the paternal grandfather of 



PIONEERS OF VIRGINIA. 5 

the President. More recent historical inquiries 
conducted, with a view to general information, 
by a distinguished member of the Historical 
Society of Virginia, 1 led to the discovery of a 
document, in the State Paper Office at London, 
containing a list of the Colonists in 1623, on 
which the name of Captain Isaac Madison ap- 
pears, only seventeen years after the landing at 
Jamestown. This Captain Isaac Madison was, 
doubtless, identical with the " Captain Madyson," 
whose achievements in war with the " salvages," 
in the year 1622, are specially mentioned in the 
first authentic history of the Colony, by its gal- 
lant and heroic preserver, Captain John Smith. 2 
The family, arriving among the earliest of the 
emigrants in the new world, and planting itself 
on the shores of the Chesapeake, extended its 
scions, in little more than a century, to the 
waters of the Mississippi, braving, with heroic 
constancy, the hardships of a then unbroken wil- 
derness, and the terrors of Indian ferocity and 
revenge against the intruding and progressive 
white man. 

Among the papers of President Madison is a 
letter addressed to his father in 1753 by John 
Madison, the pioneer of the western branch of 
the family, who had then recently established 
himself in the transmontane region of Virginia. 

1 See Report of the Executive 2 Smith's History of Virginia, 
Committee of the Virginia Histor- book iv. 
ical Society in 1856, by Conway 
Robinson, Esq. 

1* 



6 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

It presents so lively a picture of the dangers, 
distresses, and hardships of our ancestors who 
first occupied that portion of the State, and of 
the mingled bravery and tenderness, resignation 
and magnanimity, which they displayed in their 
trials, that some passages of it are here inserted, 
as belonging, of right, to the domain of history. 
From familiarity with danger, the intrepidity of 
the writer seems sometimes to turn almost to 
recklessness. 

"Four families, on their flight from a branch 
of New River, this minute passed by my house, 
who say that five men were murdered at the 
house of Ephraim Voss on Roanoke since the 
death of Col. Patton. Tis shocking to think of 
the calamity of the poor wretches who lived on 
the Holston and New rivers, who for upwards 
of a hundred miles have left their habitations, 
lost their crops and vast numbers of their stock. 
Could you see, dear friend, the women who es- 
caped crying after their murdered husbands, with 
their helpless children hanging on them, it could 
but wound your very soul." 

"As the Governor has been pleased to appoint 
Captain Andrew Lewis the Lieutenant of this 
county, I expect I shall see his instructions at 
court. Perhaps he may fall upon some measures 
to put a stop to the inroads of those barbarians, 
without giving the people below the trouble of 
marching over ; of which I will write to you by 
Mr. Semple." 



riONEERS OF VIRGINIA. 7 

"I am extremely obliged to all my good 
friends for the guns sent. Pray tell them they 
shall be carefully returned, as soon as I can be 
otherwise provided. I am also much obliged to 
you for your kind invitation, and much to my 
good aunt for the concern she expressed to Mr. 
Johnston for our welfare. But when I consider 
what a train I have, I cannot think of being so 
troublesome. Besides, should I lose my all with 
my life, I think my children had as well go 
hence, whilst in a state of innocency. 
"I am, with the greatest esteem, 

"Your affectionate kinsman, 

"Jno. Madison." 

"August 19, 1753." 

In a postscript, after reciting some further outr 
rages of the Indians, he concludes with the fol- 
lowing characteristic passage : — 

"I verily believe they are determined on our 
destruction. However, as they come in small 
parties, if they will be so kind as to stay till I 
have finished my fort, may Heaven send me a 
few of them. Perhaps I may defray all expenses. 
Farewell." 

From the writer of this letter, who was the 
first cousin of President Madison's father, sprang 
the Right Reverend James Madison, the first 
Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of 
Virginia, and long the distinguished head of Wil- 
liam and Mary College; Col. George Madison of 
Kentucky, who served with brilliant distinction 



8 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

in the war of 1812, and was subsequently gov- 
ernor of that State; and several other brothers 
who enjoyed a large share of the esteem and 
consideration of their countrymen. The annals 
of the State, of the Army, and of the Church 
have thus, all in their turn, been illustrated by 
the name of Madison. 

The father of President Madison resided, dur- 
ing his whole life, upon the Montpelier estate, 
which became afterwards the residence of his 
son, as it had been of his own father, Mr. Ambrose 
Madison. It was always the seat of hospitality, 
rendered doubly attractive by the picturesque 
grandeur of its mountain scenery, and the hearti- 
ness and cordiality of its possessors. The mother 
of Mr. Madison, Eleanor Conway, must in her day 
have added largely to the attractions of the so- 
cial, as she undoubtedly did, in the highest degree, 
to the happiness, comfort, and usefulness of the 
domestic scene. Nothing is more touching and 
beautiful in the life of her illustrious son than 
the devoted tenderness for his mother with which 
her virtues and character inspired him — ever re- 
curring with anxious thoughtfulness, in the midst 
of his most important occupations, to her delicate 
health, and after the close of his public labors, 
personally watching over and nursing her old 
age with such pious care that her life was pro- 
tracted to within a few years of the term of his 
own. His father was, no less, the object of his 
dutiful and affectionate attachment and respect. 



EDUCATION. 9 

The correspondence between them, from the pe- 
riod of young Madison's being sent to Princeton 
College in 1769 to the installation of the ma- 
tured and honored statesman in the office of 
Secretary of State in 1801, when the father 
died, has been carefully preserved, and shows 
how much they were bound to each other by 
sentiments of mutual confidence and respect, 
even more than by ties of natural affection. 

James Madison was the eldest of a family of 
seven children who attained years of maturity — 
four sons and three daughters. His brothers, 
Francis, Ambrose, and William, enjoying, in the 
main, the same opportunities of liberal education 
with himself, were led by circumstances or taste 
after the close of the revolutionary war, in the 
military duties of which two of them bore a 
part, to prefer the paths of private life, in which 
they were warmly esteemed and beloved. His 
sisters, superadding accomplishments and solid in- 
struction to natural charms, married gentlemen 
of the highest respectability and intelligence, 
and adorned with their virtues and graces the 
spheres of life in which they moved. 

James, being the eldest of the sons, was the 
first to pass through the ordeal of the scholastic 
training which his father, appreciating its advan- 
tages so much the more from having been de- 
prived of them, in a great degree, by the rude 
and imperfect state of education in his own 
youth, was honorably anxious to secure to his 



10 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

children. His novitiate was passed at a school 
of much reputation in the county of King and 
Queen, conducted by an erudite Scotchman of 
the name of Donald Robertson. In this school, 
he was instructed mainly in the Greek, Latin, 
French, and Spanish languages. He seems to 
have retained in after life a very lively impres- 
sion of the erudition of his preceptor, as we find 
the following memorandum indorsed by him on 
a letter received in 1804, when he was Secre- 
tary of State, from a certain Isaac Robertson, 
preferring his claims to a share of the public 
patronage : a The writer is son of Donald Rob- 
ertson, the learned Teacher in King and Queen 
County, Virginia." It was probably from this 
Mr. Robertson that Mr. Madison originally de- 
rived, with much sound learning, a somewhat 
rugged and inharmonious pronunciation of the 
French language, for which he always apologized 
as his Scotch-French — a dialect not likely to be 
unproved by the subsequent instructions and ex- 
ample of the learned and patriotic Dr. Wither- 
spoon. 

After leaving the school of Mr. Robertson, 
young Madison prosecuted his studies at home, 
under the tuition of the Rev. Thomas Martin, 
the established minister of the parish, who lived, 
at the time, in the family at Montpelier. This 
gentleman was from New Jersey, though he 
had near connections in North Carolina, where 
one of his brothers then resided, and after- 



PRINCETON COLLEGE. 11 

wards became governor of that State. He ap- 
pears to have been a man of both learning 
and piety ; and while preparing his youthful 
pupil for college, acquired a strong hold on his 
friendship and esteem. What were the precise 
circumstances which determined the collegiate 
destination of young Madison to Princeton, in- 
stead of Williamsburg, where most of the young 
men of Virginia were then educated, is, perhaps, 
at this day, not very accurately known. It has 
been suggested that the unhealthiness of the 
latter place, particularly for those reared in the 
mountain climate of Virginia, was the chief mo- 
tive of the decision made in favor of the former. 
But it is highly probable that the unhappy divis- 
ions which existed, about that time, between the 
Board of Visitors of William and Mary College 
and its Faculty, together with the unpopularity 
of the President, the Rev. Mr. Horrocks, who, in 
the excitement which then prevailed on the dis- 
turbing question of an American Episcopate, was 
suspected of too eager aspirations to the mitre, 1 
contrasted with the harmonious councils and ris- 
ing reputation of Nassau-Hall, under the rule of 
Dr. Witherspoon, whose name had just brought 
to that institution the prestige of a European 
renown, were not without their due share of in- 
fluence on the choice finally made. 

The following letter of Mr. Madison, then a 

1 See History of OM Churches and Ministers in Virginia, by Bishop 
Meade, vol. I. pp. 168-173, and 175, in note. 



12 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

youth of eighteen years of age, addressed to 
his late preceptor, just after his introduction to 
the academic shades of Princeton, presents so 
pleasing a picture of his amiable nature, of his 
literary ardor, and of the nascent graces of a 
pen destined, in its maturity, to be among the 
most polished of the age, that we cannot with- 
hold it from the reader, especially as it happens 
to be the one of the earliest date now extant. 

"Nassau-Hall, August 10th, 1769. 

" Reverend Sir : I am not a little affected at 
hearing of your misfortune, but cannot but hope 
the cure may be so far accomplished as to ren- 
der your journey not inconvenient. Your kind 
advice and friendly cautions are a favor that 
shall be always gratefully remembered : and I 
must beg leave to assure you that my happi- 
ness, which you and your brother so ardently 
wish for, will be greatly augmented by both 
your enjoyments of the like blessing." 

"I have been as particular to my father as I 
thought necessary for this time, as I send him 
an account of the institution, &c, wrote by Mr. 
Blair, the gentleman formerly elected President 
of this college. You will likewise find two pam- 
phlets, entitled, 'Britannia's Intercession for John 
Wilkes, &c. &c.,' which, if you have not seen, 
may perhaps divert you." 

"The near approach of Examination occasions 
a surprising application to study on all sides ; 



PRINCETON COLLEGE. 13 

and I think it very fortunate that I entered col- 
lege immediately after my arrival. Though I 
believe there will not be the least danger of my 
getting an Irish hint, as they call it, yet it will 
make my future studies somewhat easier; and I 
have, by that means, read over more than half 
Horace, and made myself pretty well acquainted 
with prosody, both which will be almost neg- 
lected the two succeeding years." 

"The very large packet of letters for Caro- 
lina, I am afraid, will be incommodious to your 
brother on so long a journey, to whom I desire 
my compliments may be presented, and conclude 
with my earnest request for a continuance of 
both your friendships, and sincere wishes for 
your recovery and an agreeable journey to your 
whole company. 

"I am, sir, your obliged friend 

"And humble servant, 

"James Madison." 

" To the Rev. Thos. Martin. 

" P. S. Sawney tells me that your mother and 
brothers are determined to accompany you to 
Virginia. My friendship and regard for you en- 
title them to my esteem ; and assure them that, 
with the greatest sincerity I wish, after a pleas- 
ant journey, they may find Virginia capable of 
giving them great happiness. J. M." 

The young Virginian, invested with the toga vi~ 
rilis of anticipated manhood, we now see launched 

VOL. I. 2 



14 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

on that disciplinary career which is to form him 
for the future struggles of life. The moment is 
one not only of deep interest in his own per- 
sonal fortunes, but of a most marked and stir- 
ring character in the history of the world. The 
year 1709 witnessed the fatal renewal of the 
controversies between the British Colonies in 
America and the mother country, which were 
thenceforward to go on with increasing compli- 
cation and violence till they terminated in the 
disruption of the empire. 

The scheme of George Grenville for taxing 
unrepresented America, abandoned by the short- 
lived Whig administration of Lord Rockingham, 
had been already revived by the arrogant temer- 
ity of Charles Townshend, accompanied with the 
odious machinery of a Board of Trade, new-fan- 
gled courts of admiralty, and arrangements for 
quartering British troops on the Colonies. The 
two Houses of Parliament, in a joint address to 
the King, had just had the folly to repeat their 
determined adhesion to all these pernicious meas- 
ures, to which they added the fresh provocation 
of calling upon the Ministers to put in action an 
obsolete and unconstitutional statute for bring;- 
ing home, for trial and punishment in England, 
those who should be accused of offending against 
the unlimited supremacy claimed by them in 
America. The House of Burgesses of the Col- 
ony to which young Madison belonged had, at 
its session in the month of May preceding the 



COLONIAL DISPUTES. 15 

date of his letter given above, adopted Resolu- 
tions of patriotic and indignant remonstrance 
against these proceedings, and was instantly dis- 
solved. The example of Virginia was promptly 
followed, with noble spirit, by Massachusetts and 
several of the other colonies ; and their legisla- 
tive assemblies were, in like manner, arbitrarily 
and rudely dissolved. 

These agitating events, which marked the year 
1769 in America, were, by a singular coincidence, 
matched with scenes of corresponding excite- 
ment, occurring at the same time in the domes- 
tic politics of England. The memorable Resolu- 
tion of the House of Commons, nullifying the 
election of John Wilkes for the County of Mid- 
dlesex, which, in its antecedents and conse- 
quences, convulsed the British nation with one 
of the most violent and protracted constitutional 
struggles it has ever known, dates from this 
eventful year. Besides the parliamentary de- 
bates of surpassing power to which, in conjunc- 
tion with the American question, it gave rise, 
and in which the great names of Chatham, Cam- 
den, Burke, and Fox were in constant battle- 
array against those of Mansfield, North, Wedder- 
burne, and their ministerial compeers, it caused 
the Press to teem with a brood of controversial 
pamphlets, which found their way to America, 
and of which two, we have just seen, were sent 
home by young Madison for the perusal of his 
father, and of the learned and excellent gentle- 



16 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

man who was lately his tutor. But, among the 
political writers of the clay, one rose to a splen- 
dor and height of renown which will forever sig- 
nalize the year 1769, as that in which the let- 
ters of Junius to the Public Advertiser first made 
their appearance, and drew upon the mysterious 
combatant, whose impenetrable mask has never 
yet been lifted, the mingled wonder, admiration, 
and imitative zeal of the age. 

Amid such thronging excitements, both in the 
Colonies and the metropolitan seat of empire, to 
arouse and stir the youthful minds of America, 
it was a happy circumstance for them and the 
country that so superior a spirit as that of 
Dr. Witherspoon then directed the instruction 
and discipline of one of its chief establishments 
of learning. It was only the year before Mr. 
Madison's entrance into the college of Princeton, 
that this truly great man, and ardent lover and 
champion of American freedom, as he afterwards 
approved himself, was called to preside over it. 
At the ripened age of forty-six years, he brought 
with him the learning and science of his native 
country in its meridian glory, while it was yet 
illustrated and adorned by the living lights of 
Smith, Hume, Reid, Kaimes, Robertson, and Blair; 
a spirit of profound philosophy, imbibed from 
the companionship of these master minds ; a 
sympathy and attachment for popular rights, 
nurtured in the contests he had waged against 
the claims of privilege and patronage in his 



DR. WITI1ERSP00N. 17 

mother church ; a practical wisdom and talent 
for affairs acquired by the experience of life; 
and a purity, manliness, and conscientious cour- 
age and energy, all his own. 

These rich gifts he laid on the altar of his 
adopted country, and devoted in an especial 
manner, while the continuance of the public 
tranquillity permitted, to the service of the Insti- 
tution over which he presided. Among the im- 
portant reforms he introduced into the system 
of studies there, were an enlargement of the 
mathematical course, a special attention to meta- 
physical science, which had recently made such 
marked advances under the lead of the great 
minds of his own country, an extension of the 
course of moral philosophy, so as to embrace 
the general principles of public law and politics, 
a course of history, and regular instruction, 
practical and theoretic, in the canons of criticism 
and taste, and the art of literary composition. 
In these peaceful but fruitful fields, he labored 
earnestly and faithfully for the intellectual and 
moral training of the youth of America, till he 
was called by the course of events and the con- 
fidence of the country to play a more conspicu- 
ous and responsible part on the stage of public 
affairs. Thenceforward, as one of the working 
men and most active patriots of the Revolution, 
his name stands in imperishable connection, not 
only with the Declaration of American Indepen- 
dence, and the Articles of Confederation and 

2* 



18 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

perpetual Union, of both of which he was a 
signer, but with all the great acts of the old 
Congress, from the beginning to the close of the 
glorious struggle. 

The following letter from young Madison to 
his father gives us a familiar home view of his 
Alma Mi der, where he was now beginning to lay 
the deep foundations of his future usefulness and 
distinction, (with an incidental mention of names 
which afterwards became historical,) that will be 
none the less interesting for the youthful naivete 
of the writer. 

"Nassau-Hall, September 30th, '69. 

a Honored Sir : I received your letter by Mr. 
Rosekrans, and wrote an answer ; but as it is 
probable this will arrive sooner which I now 
write by Dr. Witherspoon, I shall repeat some 
circumstances, to avoid obscurity." 

" On Wednesday last, we had the annual Com- 
mencement. Eighteen young men took their 
Bachelor's degrees, and a considerable number 
their Master's degrees. The degree of Doctor 
of Laws was bestowed on Mr. Dickinson, the 
Farmer, 1 and Mr. Galloway, the Speaker of the 
Pennsylvania Assembly 2 — a distinguished mark 
of honor, as there never was any of that kind 
conferred before in America. The Commence- 
ment began at 10 o'clock, when the President 

1 Author of the Fanner's Let- 2 This gentleman afterwards tar- 
ters, so justly celebrated. nished all his honors by defection 

from the American cause 



COMMENCEMENT AT PRINCETON. 19 

walked first into the church, the Board of Trus- 
tees following, and behind them those that were 
to take their Master's degrees, and last of all, 
those that were to take their first degrees. 

"After a short prayer by the President, the 
head oration, which is always given to the great- 
est scholar, was pronounced by Mr. Samuel Smith, 
son of a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania. 
Then followed the other orations, disputes, and 
dialogues, distributed to each according to his 
merit ; and, last of all, was pronounced the val- 
edictory oration, by Mr. John Henry, son of a 
gentleman in Maryland. This is given to the 
greatest orator. 

" We had a very great assembly of people, a 
considerable number of whom came from New 
York. Those at Philadelphia were most of them 
detained by races, which were to follow the 
next day 

"The Trustees have appointed Mr. Caldwell, a 
minister at Elizabethtown, to take a journey 
through the Southern Provinces, as far as Geor- 
gia, to make collections, by which the college 
fund may be enabled to increase the Library, 
provide an apparatus of mathematical and phil- 
osophical instruments, and likewise to support 
professors, which would be a great addition to 
the advantages of this college. Dr. Witherspoon's 
business in Virginia is nearly the same, as I con- 
jecture, and perhaps to form some acquaintance, 
to induce gentlemen to send their sons to this 
college 



20 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

"I feel great satisfaction at the assistance my 

uncle B has derived from the Springs, and I 

flatter myself, from the continuance of my moth- 
er's health, that Dr. Shore's skill will effectually 
banish the cause of her late indisposition. 

"I recollect nothing more at present worth 
relating; but as often as opportunity and any- 
thing worthy your attention may occur, be as- 
sured you shall hear from 

"Your affectionate son, 

"James Madison. 

" Col. James Madison, Orange Co., Va." 

Mr. Madison continued his residence as an un- 
dergraduate at Princeton for three years, during 
which time, by a diligence and ardor in the 
prosecution of his studies which cost him a seri- 
ous detriment to his health, he completed the 
entire course of instruction there. In 1771, at 
the age of twenty years, he closed his collegiate 
career with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
There can be no doubt that the intellectual 
training through which he passed in this institu- 
tion, the habits and associations he formed there, 
the example, both literary and personal, as well as 
the instructions, of its distinguished head, exerted 
a very large influence in moulding the character 
of his mind and shaping his future destiny. 

We have- seen how liberal and expansive a 
field of inquiry was opened to the student by 
the additions which Dr. Witherspoon made to 



COURSE OF STUDY. 21 

the previous curriculum of the college. The in- 
creased attention paid to the study of the nature 
and constitution of the human mind, and the 
improvements which had been lately introduced 
into this fundamental department of knowledge 
by the philosophical inquiries of his own coun- 
trymen, constituted a marked and most impor- 
tant feature of Dr. Witherspoon's reforms. Mr. 
Madison formed a taste for these inquiries, which 
entered deeply, as we shall hereafter have occa- 
sion to remark, into the character and habits of 
his mind, and gave to his political writings in 
after life a profound and philosophical cast which 
distinguished them, eminently and favorably, from 
the productions of the ablest of his contempora- 
ries. 

Whatever tendency there might be supposed 
to be in these studies to encourage too specula- 
tive a turn of mind was effectually counteracted 
by the lessons of experience derived from the 
study of history, a course of which, we have 
seen, was at the same time instituted by Dr. 
Witherspoon. To those who may be inclined to 
question the importance of metaphysical, as well 
as historical, knowledge to public men, we may 
be permitted to cite the testimony of one who 
ranked among the most able and successful, as 
well as brilliant, statesmen of his age and coun- 
try, and who, in lamenting that the race of 
statesmen-lawyers was extinct — that there were 
no longer Clarendons and Bacons — declared there 



22 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

would be none such any more till men found 
leisure and encouragement to climb up to the 
vantage-ground of science, and when that hap- 
pens, "one of the vantage-grounds to which men 
must climb," he adds, " is metaphysical, and the 
other historical, knowledge." 1 

Nor was it the able and judicious instruction 
of the college only that contributed to form the 
character of the future statesman, legislator, de- 
bater, and writer. There was in the kindred 
zeal, and high scholarship and attainments of his 
college associates, much that impelled him for- 
ward in his unremitting efforts of self-discipline 
and improvement. The young Smith mentioned 
by him in the letter we have just read, as the 
distinguished scholar to whom the " head oration " 
was assigned at the college commencement, was 
the Rev. Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, who after- 
wards became so celebrated for his literary and 
philosophical works, succeeding Dr. Witherspoon, 
whose daughter he married, in the presidency 
of Princeton College, after having presided with 
great reputation over that of Hampden Sidney 

1 See Lord Bolingbroke's Works, discover the abstract reason of all 

(Letters on the Study and Use of laws ; and they must trace the 

History, Lett, v.) He developes laws of particular States, espec- 

his idea, and shows the reason and ially of their own, from the first 

justness of it, in the following sen- rough sketches to the more perfect 

tence : — draughts, — from the first causes 

" They must pry into the secret or occasions that produced them, 

recesses of the human heart, and through all the effects, good and 

become well acquainted with the bad, that they produced." 
whole moral world, that they may 



HTS COLLEGE ASSOCIATES. 23 

in Virginia. He was the intimate friend and 
correspondent of Mr. Madison during the whole 
period of their lives. 

The young Henry of Maryland mentioned by 
him, as the gifted orator who pronounced the 
"valedictory" on the same occasion, became in 
after life successively member of the Congress of 
the Confederation, senator of the United States, 
and governor of his State ; and he and Mr. Madi- 
son were thus destined to renew, upon the theatre 
of their common public duties, the acquaintance 
of their early days. Among his college contem- 
poraries were also Brockholst Livingston, future 
judge of the supreme court of the United States ; 
William Bradford of Pennsylvania, future attor- 
ney-general of the United States under the ad- 
ministration of Washington ; Hugh Henry Brack- 
enridge of the same State, distinguished alike as 
a jurist and a writer; Aaron Burr, future Vice- 
President of the United States ; and Morgan 
Lewis of New York, Aaron Ogden of New Jer- 
sey, and Henry Lee of Virginia, all three, after 
distinguished military and civil careers, becoming 
the chief magistrates of their respective States. 

The young men who filled the halls of Prince- 
ton College at this period, as at a later day, 
were animated with a high spirit of public lib- 
erty and a jealous love of constitutional freedom. 
Breathed into them, as these sentiments were, 
by their great preceptor, there was everything 
in the mighty issues of the time, and the lofty 



24 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

and sublime eloquence with which those issues 
were discussed on both sides of the Atlantic, to 
fan and invigorate the sacred fire. One of the 
fruits of this patriotic excitement was the forma- 
tion among the students of a new society which 
nobly survives to this day, — the "American Whig 
Society," — of which Mr. Madison is reputed to 
have been one of the principal founders. In a 
letter to his father, dated "Nassau-Hall, July 23 
1770," he relates, in the following language of 
youthful fervor, two significant incidents which 
give honorable proof of the high spirit of resist- 
ance to the unconstitutional encroachments of 
the mother country, which then actuated the 
body of students of Princeton College. 

"We have no public news but the base con- 
duct of the merchants in New York, in breaking 
through their spirited resolutions not to import, 
a distinct account of which, I suppose, will 
be in the Virginia Gazette before this arrives. 
Their letter to the merchants in Philadelphia, 
requesting their concurrence, was lately burnt by 
the students of this place in the college yard, all 
of them appearing in their black gowns, and the 
bell tolling. — The number of students has in- 
creased very much of late. There are about a 
hundred and fifteen in college and the grammar 
school, (twenty-two commence this fall,) all of 
them in American cloth." 

)C It is a matter of natural and interesting in- 
quiry to learn what were the personal relations 



HIS RELATIONS WITH DR. WITHERSPOON. 25 

formed between the eminent man who was the 
head of this seat of learning and patriotism, and 
the pupil upon whom, more than any other, he 
seems to have impressed the distinctive charac- 
teristics of his own mind ; for no intelligent 
reader, acquainted with their works, can fail to 
remark how much the same clearness of analyti- 
cal reasoning, the same lucid order, the same 
precision and comprehensiveness combined, the 
same persuasive majesty of truth and convic- 
tion clothed in a terse and felicitous diction, 1 



' The style of Mr. Madison, 
like that of Dr. Franklin and oth- 
ers of the best writers of that age 
of American literature, seems to 
have been formed by early famil- 
iarity with the writings of Addison. 
The following letter addressed by 
him, at a later period of his life, 
to a nephew in whose studies he 
took a lively interest, contains such 
valuable hints on this subject that, 
for the benefit of the young men 
of the country, as well as for its 
intrinsic excellence and the beau- 
tiful tribute it pays to the merits 
of the Spectator, and of Addison 
in particular, we insert it here. 

" Monttelier, Jan. 4, 1829. 
" When I was at an age which 
will soon be yours, a book fell into 
my hands which I read, as I believe, 
with particular advantage. I have 
always thought it the best that 
had been written for cherishing in 
young minds a desire of improve- 
ment, a taste for learning, and a 
VOL. I. 3 



lively sense of the duties, the vir- 
tues, and the proprieties of life. 
The work I speak of is the Spec- 
tator, well known by that title. It 
had several authors, at the head 
of them Mr. Addison, whose pa- 
pers are marked at the bottom of 
each by one of the letters in the 
name of the muse, Clio. They will 
reward you for a second reading, 
after reading them along with the 
others. 

" Addison was of the first rank 
among the fine writers of the age, 
and has given a definition of what 
he showed himself to be an exam- 
ple. ' Fine writing,' he says, ' con- 
sists of sentiments that are natural, 
without being obvious ; ' to which 
adding the remark of Swift, anoth- 
er celebrated author of the same 
period, making a good style to 
consist ' of proper words in their 
proper places,' a definition is form- 
ed, which will merit your recollec- 
tion when you become qualified, 
as I hope you will one day be, to 



26 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

shine forth in the productions, whether written 
or spoken, of both. Such intellectual affinities, 
joined to moral worth, could not but form a 
strong bond of friendship, and of mutual confi- 
dence, attachment, and respect between them. 
These sentiments are warmly manifested by the 
pupil in a letter written from Princeton to his 
father the 9th October, 1771, in which he says: 

"1 should be glad if your health and other 
circumstances should enable you to visit Dr. 
Witherspoon during his stay in Virginia. I am 
persuaded you would be much pleased with him, 
and that he would be very glad to see you." 

Dr. Witherspoon continued to feel a lively in- 
terest in the studies and pursuits of his pupil, 
after the formal connection of the latter with 
the college was terminated. Young Madison, 
appreciating at its just value the aid of so en- 
lightened a guide and counsellor, and desiring 
also to avail himself of the riches of the college 
library, determined, after his graduation, to pass 
one year more at Princeton as a private stu- 
dent. The preceptor and the pupil were des- 
tined to meet again, after a lapse of nine years, 
in the supreme councils of the country, as co- 
workers in the great cause of national indepen- 
dence and national union. 

employ your pen for the benefit the time arrives for making use of 

of others, and for your own grati- it, and as a token also of all the 

fication. good wishes of your affectionate 

" I send you a copy of the ' Spec- uncle. J. M." 

tator.' that it may be at hand when 



CHAPTER II. 

Madison leaves Princeton and returns to his Father's Residence in 
Virginia — His Studies and Pursuits at Home — Correspondence 
with his College Friend, Bradford of Philadelphia — Religious Sen- 
timents — Traits of Personal Character — Progress of Controversy 
■with the Mother Country — Persecution of Baptists in Virginia 
excites Indignation of Madison — Early Champion of Religious 
Freedom — Established Church in Virginia — Conduct and Influ- 
ence of its Members in the Contest for Independence. 

In 1772, Mr. Madison, then twenty-one years 
of age, returned to take up his residence under 
the paternal roof in Virginia. Here his love of 
study followed him ; and he divided his time 
between an extensive course of reading for his 
own improvement, and the amiable office of in- 
structing his younger brothers and sisters in the 
rudiments of literature. The temporary lull in 
our controversies with the mother country hap- 
pily enabled him, for a year or two, to give 
himself up to these peaceful and edifying pur- 
suits with but little distraction. 

The port duties imposed upon the Colonies, 
after the repeal of the Stamp Act, had in their 
turn been repealed also, with the single excep- 
tion of the duty of three pence on tea, which, 



28 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

contemptible as it was in amount, was obstinately 
retained by the infatuation of Lord North, as a 
symbol of the legislative supremacy of England ; 
he madly declaring that a total repeal, which was 
urged by some of the ablest of his colleagues 
in the Cabinet, as well as by the leaders of the 
opposition in Parliament, "was not to be thought 
of, till America is prostrate at our feet." Amer- 
ica wisely contented herself, for a season, with 
a calm but effectual resistance by associations 
generally entered into, and for the most part 
religiously kept, not to consume any tea of Brit- 
ish importation, so long as it was the subject oi 
unconstitutional taxation. 

A brief period of comparative tranquillity en- 
sued. During this interval we find Mr. Madison, 
from the bosom of the peaceful retirement in 
which he was prosecuting his studies with no 
other discouragement than that of the feeble 
health he had brought with him from Prince- 
ton, cultivating the pleasures of ingenuous friend- 
ship in a free epistolary intercourse with some of 
his late college companions. Among these was 
young Bradford of Philadelphia, whose name has 
been already mentioned. He was two or three 
years the junior of Mr. Madison ; but congen- 
ial tastes and sentiments formed a strong, mu- 
tual attachment between them. The subsequent 
career of Bradford, first as a gallant officer of 
the army during a portion of the revolutionary 
contest, afterwards successively attorney-general, 



HIS EARLY CORRESPONDENCE. 29 

and judge of the supreme court, of Pennsylvania, 
and finally attorney-general of the United States 
under the administration of Washington, in which 
high position his days were prematurely ended, 
shows how worthy he was of the friendship he 
inspired. 

A cordial and unreserved correspondence was 
kept up between these two young friends for 
several years after they left their Alma Mater, 
from which we propose to offer some extracts 
as illustrative alike of the early character of 
Mr. Madison and of the contemporary history of 
the country. We give entire the first letter, as 
revealing the inmost sentiments of Mr. Madison's 
mind on topics of the deepest interest to human 
life, in a mingled tone of philosophy and friend- 
ship, and with an unstudied Addisonian grace, 
which prefigured the future sage in the youthful 
friend. 

"Orange, Virginia, Nov. 9, 1772. 

"My Dear B : You moralize so prettily 

that, if I were to judge from some parts of your 
letter of October 13, I should take you for an 
old philosopher, that had experienced the empti- 
ness of earthly happiness ; and I am very glad 
that you have so early seen through the roman- 
tic paintings with which the world is sometimes 
set off by the sprightly imaginations of the in- 
genious. You have happily supplied by reading 
and observation the want of experiment ; and 
therefore I hope you are sufficiently guarded 

3* 



30 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

against the allurements and vanities that beset us 
on our first entrance on the theatre of life. Yet 
however nice and cautious we may be in detectr 
ing the follies of mankind, and framing our econ- 
omy according to the precepts of wisdom and 
religion, I fancy there will commonly remain 
with us some latent expectation of obtaining 
more than ordinary happiness and prosperity, 
till we feel the convincing argument of actual 
disappointment : though I will not determine 
whether w r e shall be much the worse for it, if 
we do not allow it to intercept our views to- 
wards a future state, because strong desires and 
great hopes instigate us to arduous enterprises, 
fortitude, and perseverance. 

"Nevertheless, a watchful eye must be kept 
on ourselves, lest, while we are building ideal 
monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect 
to have our names enrolled in the annals of 
heaven. These thoughts come into my mind, 
because I am writing to you and thinking of 
you. As to myself, I am too dull and infirm 
now to look out for any extraordinary things in 
this world, for I think my sensations for many 
months have intimated to me not to expect a 
long or healthy life ; though it may be better 
with me after some time, but I hardly dare ex- 
pect it, and therefore have little spirit or elas- 
ticity to set about anything that is difficult in 
acquiring, and useless in possessing after one has 
exchanged time for eternity. But you have 



LETTER TO MR. BRADFORD. 31 

health, youth, fire, and genius to bear you along 
through the high track of public life, and so 
may be more interested and delighted in im- 
proving on hints that respect the temporal, 
though momentous, concerns of man. 

"I think you made a judicious choice of his- 
tory and the science of morals for your winter's 
study. They seem to be of the most universal 
benefit to men of sense and taste in every post, 
and must certainly be of great use to youth in 
settling the principles and refining the judg- 
ment, as well as in enlarging knowledge and 
correcting the imagination. I doubt not but 
you design to season them with a little divinity 
now and then, which, like the philosopher's stone 
in the hands of a good man, will turn them and 
every lawful acquirement into the nature of itself, 
and make them more precious than fine gold. 

"As you seem to require that I should be 
open and unreserved, (which is, indeed, the only 
proof of true friendship,) I will venture to give 
you a word of advice, though it be more to 
convince you of my affection for you than from 
any apprehension of your needing it. Pray do 
not suffer those impertinent fops that abound in 
every city to divert you from your business and 
philosophical amusements. You may please them 
more by admitting them to the enjoyment of 
your company; but you will make them respect 
and admire you more by showing your indigna- 
tion at their follies, and by keeping them at a 



32 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

becoming distance. I am luckily out of the way 
of such troubles ; but I know you are surrounded 
with them, for they breed in towns and popu- 
lous places as naturally as flies do in the sham- 
bles, because there they get food enough for 
their vanity and impertinence. 

"I have undertaken to instruct my brothers 
and sisters in some of the first rudiments of lit- 
erature ; but it does not take up so much of my 
time but I shall have leisure to receive and an- 
swer your letters, which are very grateful to me, 
I assure you, and for reading any performances 
you may be kind enough to send me, whether 
of Mr. Freneau or anybody else. I think my- 
self happy in your correspondence, and desire 
you will continue to write as often as you can, 
as you see I intend to do by the early and long 
answer I send you. You are the only valuable 
friend I have settled in so public a place, and I 
must rely on you for an account of all literary 
transactions in your part of the world. 

"I am not sorry to hear of Livingston's getting 
a degree. I heartily wish him well, though many 
would think I had but little reason to do so ; 
and if he would be sensible of his opportunities 
and encouragement, I think he might still re- 
cover. L and his compeers, after their 

feeble but wicked assault upon Mr. Erwin, in 
my opinion, will disgrace the catalogue of names; 
but they are below contempt, and I spend no 
more words about them. 



HIS RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS. :\:\ 

"And now, my friend, I must take my leave 
of you, but with such hopes, that it will not be 
long before I receive another epistle from you, 
as make me more cheerfully conclude and sub- 
scribe myself your sincere and affectionate friend, 

"James Madison, Jr. 

" To Mr. William Bradford, Jr., > 
at the Cofifee-House, Philadelphia." ) 

"P. S. Your direction was right. However, 
the addition of 'Jr.' to my name would not be 
improper." 

The reader will not have failed to remark the 
elevated strain of religious sentiment which per- 
vades the preceding letter. The advice which 
young Madison gave his friend to season his 
other studies with a clue attention to the oracles 
of Divine Truth was faithfully observed by him- 
self. Among his early manuscripts, which have 
come down to us, are minute and elaborate notes 
made by him on the Gospels and the Acts of 
the Apostles, which evince a close and discrimi- 
nating study . of the sacred writings, as well as 
a wide acquaintance with the whole field of the- 
ological literature. In one of these notes, refer- 
ring to a chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, 
where the Bereans are mentioned as " more no- 
ble than those in Thessalonica, in that they re- 
ceived the word with all readiness of mind, and 
searched the Scriptures daily whether these things 
were so," he commends their conduct " as a noble 



34 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

example for all succeeding Christians to imitate 
and follow." After the manner of the Bereans, 
he seems to have searched the Scriptures daily 
and diligently ; and we give below, from the 
mass of his annotations, a few brief excerpts, as 
specimens of the manner in which he conducted 
and recorded his researches. 1 

Nor were his studies in this vital and mo- 
mentous branch of the relations of humanity, 
confined to the text of the Holy Scriptures. He 
explored the whole history and evidences of 
Christianity on every side, through clouds of 
witnesses and champions for and against, from 
the Fathers and schoolmen down to the infidel 
philosophers of the eighteenth century. No one 

1 In a paraphrase on the Gos- en, "Arise, and go into the city, 
pel of St. John, referring to the and it shall be told thee what thou 
passage in which Mary Magdalene shalt do," he subjoins this as the 
is represented as looking into the proper deduction from the pas- 
Holy Sepulchre and seeing two sage : " It is not the talking, but 
angels in white, one sitting at the the ivalking and working person 
head and the other at the feet, that is the true Christian." 
where the body of the Saviour On doctrinal points, the follow- 
had lain, he makes the following ing brief memoranda and refer- 
reflection : — enccs taken from many others of 

" Angels to be desired at our a like character, may serve to show 

feet as well as at our head — not both his orthodoxy and his pene- 

an angelical understanding and a tration : — 

diabolical conversation — not all " Omnisciency — God's fore- 

our religion in our brains and knowledge doth not compel, but 

tongue, and nothing in our heart permits to be done." Acts, ch. n. 

and life." v. 23. 

In the same spirit, commenting " Christ's divinity appears by St. 
on the chapter of Acts, where Je- John, ch. xx. v. 28." 
sus says to St. Paul, who had fallen " Resurrection testified and wit- 
to the earth under the light which nessed by the Apostles. Acts, 
shined round about him from heav- ch. iv. v. 33." 



HIS RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS. 35 

not a professed theologian, and but few even of 
those who are, have ever gone through more 
laborious and extensive inquiries to arrive at 
the truth. So vast and so unwonted was the 
research which, during this period of his life, he 
had bestowed on religious investigations, that, 
when the University of Virginia was established, 
he was called on by its eminent founder for a 
list of theological writers, ancient and modern, 
to fill that department of the university library. 
The catalogue he furnished will ever remain a 
memorial alike of his learning and of his just 
appreciation of the paramount importance of this 
great province of human reason and faith. 1 

What was the result in his mind of these 
profound and laborious inquiries, prosecuted with 
all the freshness and energy of his intellectual 
powers, appears very significantly, although inci- 
dentally, in a letter written by him two years 
later to his young Pennsylvanian friend. Speak- 
ing of the celebrated Tracts of Dean Tucker on 
the dispute between England and her Ameri- 
can colonies, which he had just then read with 
much satisfaction at the practical solution of the 
controversy recommended by that author, in a 
voluntary separation of the two countries, Mr. 
Madison adds : — 

"At the same time, his ingenious and plausi- 
ble defence of parliamentary authority carries in 
it such defects and misrepresentations as confirm 

1 See Appendix, A. 



36 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

me in political orthodoxy, after the same man- 
ner as the specious arguments of infidels have 
established the faith of inquiring Christians." 

To return, however, to the order of time in 
following this familiar and confidential corre- 
spondence, so full of characteristic traits. We 
find two letters of Mr. Madison addressed to his 
friend Bradford during the year 1773, which, be- 
ing a year of unusual political tranquillity for 
the times, the correspondence of that date claims 
our attention chiefly by its personal details, and 
the unstudied revelations it gives, by the way, 
of the character of the writer. In a letter of 
the 28th of April, 1773, his love of truth and 
plain dealing strikingly appears in the following 
passage : — 

" I am glad you disclaim all punctiliousness in 
our correspondence. For my own part, I confess 
I have not the face to perform ceremony in per- 
son ; and I equally detest it on paper, though, 
as Tully says, it cannot blush. Friendship, like 
all truth, delights in plainness and simplicity ; and 
it is the counterfeit alone that needs ornament 
and ostentation. I am so thoroughly persuaded 
of this, that, when I observe any one over-com- 
plaisant to me in his professions and promises, 
I am tempted to interpret his language thus : 
'As I have no real esteem for you, and for cer- 
tain reasons think it expedient to appear well in 
your eye, I endeavour to varnish falsehood with 
politeness, which I think I can do in so ingenious 



TRAITS OF PERSONAL CHARACTER. 37 

a manner that so vain a blockhead as you cannot 
see through it.'" 

Another passage in the same letter, in which 
he expresses a manly disdain at malice and de- 
traction, is a fit pendant to the preceding. 

" I have not seen," he says, " a single piece 
against the Doctor's address. I saw a piece 
advertised for publication in the Philadelphia 
Gazette, entitled ' Candid Eemarks, &c.,' and that 
is all I know about it. These things seldom 
reach Virginia, and when they do, I am out of 
the way of them. I have a curiosity to read 
those authors who write ' with all the rage of 
impotence,' not because there is any excellence 
or wit in their writings, but because they im- 
plicitly proclaim the merit of those they are 
railing against, and give them an occasion of 
showing by their silence and contempt that they 
are invulnerable." 

In the conclusion of his letter, he tells his 
friend : " My health is a little better, owing, I 
believe, to more activity and less study, recom- 
mended by physicians. I shall try, if possible, to 
devise some business that will afford me a sight 
of you once more in Philadelphia, within a year 
or two. I wish you would resolve the same 
with respect to me in Virginia, though within a 
shorter time." 

On the 6th of September, of the same year, he 
writes another but very brief letter to his friend, 
in which he mentions, with great gratification, a 

VOL. I. 4 



38 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

visit that had just been paid him by a gentle- 
man who was one of his tutors at Princeton. 
How congenial the sentiments of friendship and 
affection were to his ingenuous nature, is shown 
by the following simple effusion of the heart: — 

" This will be handed you by Mr. Erwin, who 
has been kind enough to extend his journey thus 
far, and whose praise is in every man's mouth 
here for an excellent discourse he this day 
preached for us. He will let you know every- 
thing that occurs to me worth mentioning, at 
commencement, or Philadelphia if you should 
not attend commencement. Gratitude to him 
and friendship to you and others, with some 
business, perhaps, will induce me to visit Phila- 
delphia or Princeton in the spring, if I should 
be alive and should have health sufficient." 

The year 1774 opened with questions of the 
deepest import to American liberty. The British 
ministry, foiled in their attempt to raise a reve- 
nue in America from the duty on tea by the 
private associations so extensively entered into 
against its use, had recently fallen upon a new 
expedient for the accomplishment of their ob- 
ject. They entered into an arrangement with 
the East India Company, exempting them from 
the heavy export duty which had been hitherto 
imposed on the shipment of tea from England; 
in consideration of which the Company was to 
send out to the Colonies large cargoes of that 
commodity, which, being thus enabled to sell at 



PROGRESS OF COLONIAL DISPUTE. 39 

much cheaper rates than before, including the 
duty charged upon it in America, it was thought 
they could not fail to introduce again into the 
consumption of the country, and so succeed at 
last in levying the unconstitutional tribute. Un- 
der this arrangement, numerous ships of the 
Company laden with tea arrived, about the close 
of the preceding year, at New York, Philadel- 
phia, Charleston, and Boston. 

The people of America, filled with indignation 
at this politico-commercial confederacy, resolved 
to defeat it by preventing the landing of the ob- 
noxious cargoes. The peace-loving Quaker city 
of Philadelphia, in which Mr. Madison's friend 
resided, took the lead on this occasion. 1 A pub- 
lic meeting of its inhabitants was held, in which 
bold and vigorous resolutions were adopted, de- 
claring the new plan of importation to ' be 
an "attack upon the liberties of America," calling 
on every good citizen to oppose the attempt, 
and denouncing any one who should directly or 
indirectly countenance it as "an enemy of his 
country." At the same time, a committee was 
appointed to call upon the consignees of the 
company, and insist upon the resignation of 
their agency. The demand was immediately 
complied with; and the odious tea ships, with 
their offensive contraband, sailed back from the 
Delaware to the Thames without having once 

1 See Annual Register for 1774, p. 49, and Belsham's Great Britain, 
vol. vi. p. 40. 



40 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

broken bulk. Similar proceedings were adopted 
at New York, and with the like result. At 
Charleston, after much opposition, the tea was 
allowed to be unloaded, but without entry at 
the custom-house, and deposited in damp cellars, 
where it was finally rendered worthless by the 
effect of the humidity to which it was exposed. 

At Boston, events of a yet graver character 
grew out of the resistance to the new ministe- 
rial device. Every effort to prevail on the con- 
signees of the East India Company to decline 
their agency had failed. The Governor and the 
officers of the customs, anxious to recommend 
themselves to the ministry by their zeal, inter- 
posed every obstacle to the voluntary return of 
the tea ships. The spirit of popular indignation, 
chafed by official opposition, had recourse to 
more summary methods of redress ; and a num- 
ber of persons, in /the disguise of Indians, entered 
on board the East India ships, and emptied the 
tea chests into the ocean. 

This memorable occurrence took place on the 
16th of December, 1773, and was undoubtedly, 
in the immediate sequence of events which it 
produced, the proximate cause of the American 
Revolution. It kindled at once an unmeasured 
and intemperate resentment in the government 
of the mother country that hurried it headlong 
into violent and arbitrary measures, which, in 
their turn, aroused and united all America in 
determined resistance to these accumulated acts 



PERSECUTION OF BAPTISTS IN VIRGINIA. 41 

of tyranny and oppression. The bill for closing 
the port of Boston; fundamental alterations in 
the colonial government of Massachusetts in vio- 
lation of her charter; a virtual indemnity granted 
to any crimes which might be committed in 
that province under color of official authority; 
and new orders for quartering troops on Amer- 
ica, were the acts of ministerial vengeance which 
followed in quick succession upon the events in 
Boston. 

But, in the midst of these great questions, 
was another of not less interest to the rights 
and destinies of man, which affected the mind 
of Mr. Madison the more painfully, perhaps, be- 
cause it came home to his native land. It was 
the vital question of religious freedom. The 
original colonial polity of Virginia had been 
founded in that mistaken connection of Church 
and State, which was then the universal practice 
of all nations and of all religious parties. Even 
the Puritans of New England, who came to 
America to escape religious persecution in the 
mother country, were no sooner established in 
their new abode than they fell into the same 
abuse, and set the example of fierce intolerance 
against all other sects than their own. 

The colonists of Virginia left their native land 
in cordial amity with the civil and religious gov- 
ernment of their fathers. They were content to 
bring with them the single guarantee of the "lib- 
erties, franchises, and immunities" of free born 

4 * 



- 

42 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Englishmen; and in the institutions of every kind 
established by them in the new world, they 
sought to conform, as near as might be, to the 
model furnished by the father-land. The govern- 
ment of the colony was, indeed, expressly in- 
structed to administer its various functions " as 
near to the common laws of England and the 
equity thereof as may be," and, in religion, to pro- 
vide that " the service of God and the Christian 
faith be preached, planted, and used according to 
the doctrine and rites of the Church of England." 1 

The Church of England, though necessarily 
modified in its transplantation, thus became the 
established Church of Virginia; and from time 
to time, laws of more or less stringency were 
passed to enforce conformity to it. At the pe- 
riod to which Mr. Madison's correspondence now 
brings us, the Baptist dissenters fell particularly 
under the persecution of the dominant authority ; 
and in the county of his own residence, (Orange,) 
as well as two of the adjacent counties, (Spotsyl- 
vania and Culpeper,) several of their ministers 
had been confined in jail for the alleged offence 
of disturbing the public peace by their preach- 
ing and mode of worship. 2 

These brief historical reminiscences seemed an 
indispensable preface to the following extracts 
of a letter addressed by Mr. Madison to his 

1 See Charter and Instructions 2 See Semple's History of the 
in Hen. Stat. vol. I. pp. 57-76. Virginia Baptists, pp. 15, 381, 382, 

415, 416, 427,428. 



CHAMPION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 43 

young Pennsylvanian friend on the 24th of Janu- 
ary, 1774, and which, we doubt not, will interest 
the reader as well by the fervid love of liberty 
with which they glow, as by the justness and 
depth of the reflections they contain. 

" I congratulate you on your heroic proceed- 
ings in Philadelphia with regard to the Tea. I 
wish Boston may conduct matters with as much 
discretion, as they seem to do with boldness. 
They appear to have great trials and difficulties 
by the reason of the obduracy and ministerial ism 
of their governor. However, political contests 
are necessary sometimes, as well as military, to 
afford exercise and practice, and to instruct in 
the art of defending liberty and property. 

"I verily believe the frequent assaults that 
have been made on America, (Boston especially,) 
will in the end prove of real advantage. If the 
Church of England had been the established and 
general religion in all the Northern colonies, as 
it has been among us here, and uninterrupted 
harmony had prevailed throughout the continent, 
it is clear to me that slavery and subjection 
might and would have been gradually insinuated 
among us. Union of religious sentiment begets 
a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical estab- 
lishments tend to great ignorance and corrup- 
tion, all of which facilitate the execution of 
mischievous projects. 

" But away with politics ! Let me address 
you as a student and philosopher, and not as a 



44 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

patriot now. I am pleased that you are going 
to converse with the Edwards and Henrys and 
Charles' who have swayed the British sceptre, 
though I believe you will find some of them 
dirty and unprofitable companions, unless you 
will glean instruction from their follies, and fall 
more in love with liberty by beholding such de- 
testable pictures of tyranny and cruelty 

"I want again to breathe your free air. I 
expect it will mend my constitution and confirm 
my principles. I have, indeed, as good an at- 
mosphere at home as the climate will allow, but 
have nothing to brag of as to the state and lib- 
erty of my country. Poverty and luxury prevail 
among all sorts; pride, ignorance, and knavery 
among the priesthood; and, vice and wickedness 
among the laity. This is bad enough; but it is 
not the worst I have to tell you. That diabol- 
ical, hell-conceived principle of persecution rages 
among some ; and, to their eternal infamy, the 
clergy can furnish their quota of imps for such 
purposes. There are, at this time, in the adja- 
cent country, not less than five or six well-mean- 
ing men in close jail for publishing their religious 
sentiments, which, in the main, are very ortho- 
dox. I have neither patience to hear, talk, or 
think of anything relative to this matter; for I 
have squabbled and scolded, abused and ridiculed 
so long about it to little purpose that I am with- 
out common patience. So I must beg you to pity 
me, and pray for liberty of conscience to all." 



ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 45 

There is no form of tyranny so revolting to 
the feelings of human nature as that which is 
exercised over the mind of man ; and no species 
of mental tyranny so odious as that which seeks 
to enslave the conscience in matters of religion. 
The sentiments of generous indignation expressed 
by Mr. Madison at the instances of religious per- 
secution which had occurred in his own State, and 
almost under his eyes in his own neighbourhood, 
do honor alike to his heart and understanding. 

But there may be reason to question whether, 
under the excitement so natural to a well 
principled mind in such circumstances, the pic- 
ture drawn by him is not somewhat over- 
charged. That there were some honorable ex- 
ceptions to the character given by him of the 
clergy of the Established Church, there can be 
no ground to doubt from the contemporary ac- 
counts which have reached us ; and that the laity 
were not universally, or, we would fain believe, 
generally infected with the malignant spirit of 
persecution described by him, seems to be suffi- 
ciently shown by the noble and catholic public 
letter of President Blair, son of the commissary, 
written only five or six years before this period, 
while he was the acting governor of the colony, 1 
and also by the fact that many of the laity, two 
years only after the date of Mr. Madison's letter, 
as members of the legislature concurred in the 

» 

1 See this admirable letter in Semple, pp. 15, 16, and also in Camp- 
bell's Virginia, p. 139. 



46 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

repeal of the laws by which the establishment 
was sustained. 1 

Nor were the Baptist dissenters exposed, in 
every part of the State, to the same measure 
of persecution. In some extensive regions, they 
were exempt from all legal molestation. 2 The 
country in which Mr. Madison resided seems to 
have been, in a particular manner, the focus in. 
which the scorching rays of persecution were 
converged, and directed, with their intensest heat, 
against this devoted sect. No wonder, then, that 
he should have been deeply outraged by such a 
spectacle, and that contrasting it, as he naturally 
did, with the general peace and happiness of the 
colony in which his friend lived, and where the 
principle of universal and unlimited freedom of 
religion had been established from the first, he 
should have taken a somewhat gloomy and de- 
sponding view of the state of- society in his 
native land. 

The opinion expressed by Mr. Madison in the 
preceding letter, that a if the Church of England 
had been the established and general religion in 
all the northern colonies, as it has been with us 
here, and uninterrupted harmony had prevailed 
throughout the continent," the ultimate loss of 
liberty might and probably would have ensued, 
deserves to be attentively considered, as it em- 
braces a great general principle, profoundly medi- 

1 Semple, pp. 26, 27, and also Jefferson's Writings, vol. I. p. 32. 

2 Semple, p. 294. 



ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 47 

tated, to which he ever attached the highest 
importance, and which may be said to be, in an 
especial manner, the corner-stone of his political 
creed. 

It was not that there was anything in the 
principles or constitution of the Church of Eng- 
land, as it existed in this country, which he 
deemed intrinsically deleterious to the public lib- 
erty, but it was, as the context shows, "the union 
of religious sentiment" enforced by law, which 
the general establishment of that or any other 
Church in all the colonies would have produced, 
that he deprecated as dangerous to liberty. The 
unfettered and spontaneous diversity of opinions, 
of sects, of parties, of interests, in both politics 
and religion, he held to be the only practical 
security for the equal liberty of all, by the mut- 
ual vigilance and inspection they would exercise 
over each other, and the mutual forbearance 
they would finally learn to practise from an ex- 
perience of that security. We shall hereafter 
have occasion to trace the consistent influence 
of this leading and fruitful principle, in his views 
and conduct on all the various and difficult 
problems of constitutional and legislative organ- 
ization which he had to deal with in his long 
and eventful career. 

That there was nothing in the Church of Eng- 
land, as it existed in this country, essentially 
hostile to public liberty, the history of the col- 
ony, where it was first established and most 



48 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

widely spread its roots, satisfactorily proves. 
Virginia was, in an especial manner, the nursery 
of freedom in the new world. By the exercise 
of a bold initiative, she early established a rep- 
resentative assembly of her own, and through 
that assembly, proclaimed the great constitu- 
tional principle of immunity from taxation ex- 
cept by her own consent. During the period 
of the intestine troubles in the mother country, 
she virtually assumed and exercised all the pow- 
ers of independent self-government. She set the 
example of an appeal to arms in vindication of 
her rights a century before the final struggle for 
national independence ; and in every stage of 
that great struggle, she was certainly behind 
none of her sister colonies in the energy and 
boldness with which she sustained the common 
cause. It cannot be said, therefore, that the 
Church of England, as it existed in Virginia, 
had extinguished or even depressed the spirit 
of liberty. 

Whatever tendencies of that kind might have 
belonged to it in its native and original consti- 
tution, were excluded by the modifications it 
underwent here. The political elements of the 
Church were not, and could not be, transplanted 
into American soil. Here were no bishops ap- 
pointed by the king and holding seats in the 
upper branch of the legislature, and pledged to 
an interested and unhallowed alliance between 
the altar and the throne. Neither were there 



ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 49 

any rights of patronage which could fill our 
churches, without regard to the wishes or con- 
sent of the people. Vestries, originally chosen 
by the people of each parish, exercised the right 
of admitting, rejecting, or displacing ministers, 
according to their own views of duty and pro- 
priety, and steadily resisted the formality of 
inductions, which were supposed to give the in- 
cumbent a legal freehold paramount to the will 
of the cono-reo-ation. 1 Discussions and contro- 
versies, on this point, often arose between the 
vestries and the Governor or commissary, and 
trained the leading men of the colony, in the 
school of parochial freedom, to habits and prin- 
ciples of. political independence. 

The vestries, though primarily ecclesiastical 
bodies, and expressly required to " subscribe to 
be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of 
the Church of England," were also invested with 
various functions of a civil _and municipal char- 
acter. They were empowered to lay and collect 
taxes within the limits of their jurisdiction for 
local purposes, to provide for the poor, to cause 
the lands to be " processioned," 2 to " present." 
through their churchwardens, offences against 
the laws and public order, and to make appoint- 

1 See Beverly's History of Vir- pointment of persons, in every term 
ginia, p. 229. Also Lord Cul- of four or five years, to go around 
peper's statement in Chalmers's and re-mark the limits of even- 
Annals of the Colonies, p. 356. separate tract of land. This was 

2 Formerly, the laws of Vir- called " processioning " the lands, 
ginia required the periodical ap- 

vol. i. 5 



50 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ments of all necessary subordinate officers in the 
execution of these duties. 1 They were thus 
clothed, to a considerable extent, with the power 
of the purse, the guardianship of property, and 
the censorship of morals, and united in their 
hands legislative, executive, and judicial trusts. 
It was natural that the men of education, prop- 
erty, and character in their respective districts 
should be chosen into these bodies; and it is 
impossible to form a just idea of the social, re- 
ligious or political condition of Virginia, at the 
period of which we are speaking, without advert- 
ing to their composition, and the influence they 
exerted. 

The vestry-men of that day, we shall find, were 
the Washingtons, the Lees, the Randolphs, the 
Masons, the Blands, the Penclletons, the Nelsons, 
the Nicholas', the Harrisons, the Pages, the Madi- 
sons, and other names, far too numerous to re- 
capitulate in detail, which stand among the first 
on the roll of our revolutionary worthies. In 
these men, and such as these, were the effective 
and controlling powers of the Church ; for the 
laity, and not the clergy, were the rulers here. 
If they showed an attachment to the Church of 
their fathers, it was not because of the laxity 
and abuses which had crept into it, but, in de- 
spite of those abuses, for the sake of those sol- 

l For the qualifications and du- 119, 220, 304, 305, 336, 337, and 
ties of Vestry-men, see Laws of edition 1769, p. 350. 
Virginia, edition 1752, pp. 2, 4, 



ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN VIRGINIA. 



51 



eran and impressive forms of worship, that noble 
and exalted liturgy, which, in the religious ser- 
vices at the opening of the first Congress, we 
are told by one of themselves, made so profound 
and thrilling an impression upon the members, 
who, by habit and education, had been most 
prepossessed against it. 1 



1 See Correspondence and Diary 
of John Adams, in his Works, vol. 
ii. pp. 368, 3G9, and Irving's Life 
of Washington, vol. i. pp. 400-401. 

The whole scene of the assem- 
bling of the first Continental Con- 
gress in Philadelphia, in May 1 774, 
was a most imposing and extraor- 
dinary one. When the members 
met together, gifted as they were 
with the highest moral and intel- 
lectual qualities, there was yet, as 
Mr. Adams writes, " such a di- 
versity of religions, educations, 
manners, and interests among 
them as it seemed impossible to 
unite in one plan of conduct." 
Upon the organization of the 
body, it was proposed that its 
daily proceedings should be opened 
with prayer ; but it was imme- 
diately suggested that, as the dele- 
gates were of different religious 
sects, they might not consent to 
join in the same form of worship. 
Upon this, Mr. Samuel Adams, 
who was a strong Congregation al- 
ist, arose and said that " he would 
willingly join in prayer with any 
gentleman of piety and virtue, 
whatever might be his cloth, if he 
was a friend to his country," and 
moved that the Rev. Mr. Duche, 



a distinguished Episcopalian cler- 
gyman of Philadelphia, should be 
invited to officiate as chaplain. 
The following morning, which was 
the 7th of May, Mr. Duche attend- 
ed, and commenced his ministra- 
tion by reading, as he did with 
great solemnity, the morning ser- 
vice of the Episcopal Church. The 
Psalm for the day was the 85th : — 

" Plead thou my cause, O Lord, 
with them that strive with me ; 
fifdit thou against them that fi<dit 
against me. 

" Lay hand upon the shield and 
buckler, and stand up to help me," 
&c., &e. 

Mr. Adams thus describes the 
effect in a letter to his wife : " You 
must remember this was the morn- 
ing after we heard the horri- 
ble rumor of the cannonade of 
Boston. I never saw a great- 
er effect upon an audience. It 
seemed as if Heaven had ordained 
that psalm to be read on that 
morning." 

It may well be conceived that 
the devout humility of Washing- 
ton, who, according to Irving, 
while others stood, knelt, (a spec- 
tacle itself of touching sublimity,) 
added not a little to the effect 



52 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

If the policy of the mother country had plant- 
ed a principle of intolerance and persecution in 
our laws, it was not such men as those we have 
mentioned who could be swayed .by a narrow 
and illiberal spirit of bigotry,— far less by a slav- 
ish submission to tyranny of any sort. Without 
denying to other religious denominations their 
full and glorious share in the early struggles for 
political liberty in Virginia, it would be to blot 
out the records of history not to recognize the 
patent fact that the leaders and chief actors here, 
(with one or two exceptions, and those not be- 
longing to any religious profession,) were mem- 
bers of the Established Church, nobly sustained 
by the patriotism, moral and intellectual power, 
and military courage of their Christian brethren 
of other persuasions. 1 

In a letter of the 1st of April, 1774, to his 
friend Bradford, Mr. Madison recurs again to the 
subject of the religious persecution in Virginia, 
which weighed so heavily on his heart. As noth- 
ing can give a juster idea of the elevated and 
catholic spirit of his mind than the sentiments 
expressed by him on this the most vital question 
affecting the rights of humanity, we subjoin a 
few extracts from it, in addition to those cited 
from the previous letter : — 

"Our Assembly is to meet the first of May, 

i Mr. Jefferson, cited in Wirt's most forward spirits in the move- 
Life of Patrick Henry, p. 125, says ments which led to the Revolution, 
that " Henry, the Lees, Pages, Ma- They were all of the Established 
sons, &c, were the boldest" and Church. 



EFFECTS OF ESTABLISHMENT. 53 

when it is expected something will be done in 
behalf of the Dissenters. Petitions, I hear, are 
already forming among the persecuted Baptists; 
and I fancy it is in the thought of the Presby- 
terians also to intercede for greater liberty in 
matters of religion. For my own part, I cannot 
help being very doubtful of their succeeding in 
the attempt. The affair was on the carpet dur- 
ing the last session ; but such incredible and ex- 
travagant stories were told in the House of the 
monstrous effects of the enthusiasm prevalent 
among the sectaries, and so greedily swallowed 
by their enemies, that I believe they lost footing 
by it. And the bad name they still have with 
those who pretend too much contempt to exam- 
ine into their principles and conduct, and are 
too much devoted to the ecclesiastical establish- 
ment to hear of the toleration of the dissen- 
tients, I am apprehensive, will be again made a 
pretext for rejecting their requests. 

"The sentiments of our people of fortune and 
fashion on this subject are vastly different from 
what you have been used to. That liberal, cath- 
olic, and equitable way of thinking, as to the 
rights of conscience, which is one of the charac- 
teristics of a free people, and so strongly marks 
the people of your province, is but little known 
among the zealous adherents to our hierarchy. 
We have, it is true, some persons in the legis- 
lature of generous principles both in religion and 
politics ; but number, not merit, you know, is 

5* 



54 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

necessary to carry points there. Besides, the 
clergy are a numerous and powerful body, have 
great influence at home by reason of their con- 
nection with and dependence on the bishops and 
crown, and will naturally employ all their arts 
and interest to depress their rising adversaries; 
for such they must consider dissentients, who rob 
them of the good-will of the people, and may 
in time endanger their livings and security. 

"You are happy in dwelling in a land where 
those inestimable privileges are fully enjoyed ; 
and the public has long felt the good effects of 
this religious, as well as civil, liberty. Foreign- 
ers have been encouraged to settle among you. 
Industry and virtue have been promoted by mut- 
ual emulation and mutual inspection ; commerce 
and the arts have flourished ; and I cannot help 
attributing those continual exertions of genius, 
which appear among you, to the inspiration of 
liberty, and that love of fame and knowledge 
which always accompanies it. Religious bondage 
shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it 
for every noble enterprise, every expanded pros-' 
pect. How far this is the case with Virginia, 
will more clearly appear when the ensuing trial 
is made." 

In the just reflections and noble sentiments 
of the preceding paragraph, we see the foreshad- 
owing of the powerful and convincing arguments 
which, at a future day, were to proceed from 
the pen and tongue of Mr. Madison in the tri- 



HIS NOBLE EFFORTS FOR FREEDOM. 



55 



umphant vindication of religions freedom ; for it 
was upon his motion, as we shall hereafter have 
occasion to point out, that the principle was as- 
serted in its true breadth, and upon its legitimate 
grounds, in the Virginia Bill of Rights, — from 
him came the Memorial and Remonstrance of 
1785, the decisive battle fought in the 



great 



contest, — and by his able advocacy and exertions 
it was that, in the legislative session of the same 
year, the celebrated Declaratory Act, drawn by 
Mr. Jefferson, at last became a law. 



Note. A question has been 
much mooted as to the relative 
number of churchmen and dissent- 
ers in Virginia, at the period of 
the Revolution. A loose conjecture 
of Mr. Jefferson, in the " Notes on 
Virginia," that the latter formed, 
at that time, two thirds of the pop- 
ulation of" the Colony, has been fol- 
lowed by several historical writers, 
native and European. [See How- 
ison's History of Virginia, vol. II. 
p. 186, and Grahame's History of 
the United States, vol. i. p. 113.] 
Mr. Jeiferson afterwards changed 
his estimate to a simple majority. 
[Jefferson's Writings, vol. i. p. 31.] 
But either estimate is obviously 
erroneous, and is so treated by his 
intelligent biographer, Professor 
Tucker. [See Life of Jefferson, 
vol. I. pp. 19 and 97.] It is shown 
by contemporary authorities of 
great respectability that, about the 
middle of the century, there were 
but few dissenters in Virginia. 



Even as late as 17G0, Burnaby, an 
inquisitive and well informed Eng- 
lish traveller, says : " There are 
very few dissenters of any denom- 
ination in this province." [See 
"Travels in the Middle Settle- 
ments of North America in 1759 
and 1760."] It is difficult to con- 
ceive how, from such a limited 
number at that time, they could 
have risen in so short an interval, 
and in the face of the strong dis- 
couragements presented by the 
laws of the Colony for the support 
of the Established Church, to a 
majority at the breaking out of the 
Revolution. The opinion of Mr. 
Madison, reported by Professor 
Tucker, is doubtless more to be re- 
lied on : " That the proportion of 
dissenters in Virginia, at the break- 
in" out of the Revolution, was con- 
siderably less than one half of those 
who professed themselves members 
of any church." 



CHAPTER III. 

Proceedings in Virginia on receiving Intelligence of the Boston Port 
Bill — House of Burgesses dissolved by the Governor — War with 
the Indians — First Convention in Virginia — Continental Con- 
gress meets at Philadelphia — Mr. Madison's Account of the Mil- 
itary Preparations commenced in Virginia, in view of a possible 
Conflict with the Mother Country — How far Patrick Henry's 
Resolution for arming and disciplining the Militia influenced those 
Preparations — Patriotism and Influence of the ancient Landed 
Interest in Virginia — County Committees — Mr. Madison a Mem- 
ber of the one for his County — Nature and Extent of the Cavalier 
Element in the Population of Virginia — Character of the People 
of Virginia at the Era of the Revolution. 



.-■ 



At the session of the legislature in May, 1774, 
which followed the date of the foregoing letter, 
the headlong course of political events, which 
were then rapidly verging to a perilous crisis, 
precluded the consideration of all other subjects. 
The news of the Boston Port Bill was received at 
Williamsburg very soon after the Assembly met. 
It made a profound and ominous impression; 
and the following day, the House of Burgesses 
passed a resolution setting apart the 1st of June, 
when this vindictive measure was to take effect, 
to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation, 



FEELING IN VIRGINIA ON BOSTON PORT BILL. 57 

and prayer to implore the Divine interposition 
for averting the calamity of civil war, and to 
g:ive the people of America one heart and one 
mind firmly to oppose every invasion of their 
rights. This resolution was too significant in its 
language and spirit to be agreeable to the rep- 
resentative of royalty, and the House of Bur- 
gesses was immediately dissolved by the governor, 
Lord Dunmore. 

The members, by common consent, reassem- 
bled in the long room of the Raleigh Tavern 
called the "Apollo," then the headquarters of 
patriotism, and formed themselves into an asso- 
ciation to oppose the unconstitutional taxation 
of the British Parliament by discouraging the 
use of tea and of all commodities brought in by 
the East India Company, — denouncing the act 
lately passed for shutting up the harbour and 
commerce of Boston "in our sister Colony of 
Massachusetts Bay " as a " dangerous attempt to 
destroy the liberty and rights of all North Amer- 
ica," — declaring an attack made on one of the 
Colonies, to compel a submission to arbitrary 
taxes, an attack on all, — and finally recommend- 
ing the appointment of deputies from the several 
Colonies, to meet annually in general Congress 
at such place as shall be thought most conven- 
ient, " there to deliberate on those general meas- 
ures which the united interests of America may, 
from time to time, require." At a subsequent 
meeting of the members, a resolution was adopted 



58 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

inviting a convention of delegates at Williams- 
burg on the 1st day of August next, to consider 
what further measures may be necessary for the 
protection of American liberty, and to appoint 
deputies to the proposed Continental Congress. 

While these measures were taken by the pa- 
triots of Virginia against the oppressions of the 
mother country, a cruel and bloody war was 
waging upon her western frontiers by the red 
men of the forest. It was in the midst of these 
complicated troubles that Mr. Madison, having 
just returned from a visit to his friends in Penn- 
sylvania and New Jersey, renewed his correspond- 
ence with his Philadelphia friend. On the first 
of July, 1774, he writes to him as follows: — 

"I am once more got into my native land, 
and into the possession of my customary em- 
ployments, solitude and contemplation ; though 
I must confess, not a little disturbed by the 
sound of war, bloodshed, and plunder on the one 
hand, and the threats of slavery and oppression 
on the other. From the best accounts I can 
obtain from our frontiers, the savages are deter- 
mined on the extirpation of the inhabitants, and 
no longer leave them the alternative of death 
or captivity. The consternation and timidity of 
the white people, who abandon their possessions 
without making the least resistance, are as diffi- 
cult to be accounted for, as they are encouraging 
to the enemy. Whether it be owing to the un- 
usual cruelty of the Indians, the want of the 



MEASURES OF RESISTANCE. 59 

necessary implements and ammunition for war, 
or to the ignorance and inexperience of many 
who, since the establishment of peace, have ven- 
tured into those new settlements, I can neither 
learn, nor with any certainty conjecture. How- 
ever, it is confidently asserted that there is not 
an inhabitant for some hundreds of miles back, 
(which have been settled for many years,) except 
those who are forted in or embodied by their 
military commanders. The state of things has 
induced Lord Dunmore, contrary to his inten- 
tions at the dissolution of the Assembly, to issue 
writs for a new election of members, whom he 
is to call together on the 11th of August. 

"As to the sentiments of the people of this 
Colony with respect to the Bostonians, I can as- 
sure you I find them generally very warm in 
their favor. The natives are very numerous and 
resolute, are making resolves in almost every 
county, and I believe are willing to fall in with 
the other Colonies in any expedient measure, 
even if that should be universal prohibition of 
trade. It must not be denied, however, that the 
Europeans, especially the Scotch, and some inter- 
ested merchants among the natives, discounte- 
nance such proceedings, as fir as they dare, 
alleging the injustice and perfidy of refusing to 
pay our debts to our generous creditors at home. 
This consideration induces some honest, moderate 
folks to prefer a partial prohibition, extending 
only to the importation of goods." 



60 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The next and last letter we have, (though 
others doubtless were written, and may perhaps 
still be in existence,) in the interesting corre- 
spondence we have been following, is of the 20th 
of January, 1775. In the six months' interval, 
which had elapsed since the date of the previ- 
ous letter, events of the deepest moment had 
passed. A feeling of profound indignation had 
been aroused among the people by the news of 
the Boston Port Bill and the dissolution of the 
Assembly ; and meetings were held in a large 
majority of the counties of Virginia, denouncing 
those proceedings in the stern, unmitigated lan- 
guage of freemen, and calling for efficient meas- 
ures of retaliation and self-protection. 

The Convention of Virginia met in Williams- 
burg on the 1st of August, 1774, and entered 
into a solemn association and agreement by 
which they pledged themselves "under the sa- 
cred ties of honor and love of country," and 
recommended the same engagement to be en- 
tered into by their constituents, not to import 
any goods, wares, and merchandise from Great 
Britain after the 1st of November next; to cease 
from exporting thither all American productions 
after the 10th day of August, 1775, if the griev- 
ances of the Colonies should not, by that day, be 
fully redressed ; to have no dealings with any 
merchant who should not subscribe to their asso- 
ciation, and to consider all such persons as ene- 
mies of the country. 



MEETING OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 61 

On the 5th of September the Continental Con- 
gress met in Philadelphia. They adopted a sol- 
emn Declaration of American rights, concluding 
with an explicit demand of the repeal of all 
the acts of Parliament, (which were enumer- 
ated at length,) that had been passed in viola- 
tion of those rights ; entered, " for themselves 
and their constituents," into a non-importation, 
non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement, 
upon the model of that of Virginia ; and finally 
put forth those masterly State Papers which have 
been immortalized by the eloquent applause of 
Chatham and by their own transcendent merits. 1 

While the Continental Congress was yet in 
session, Virginia met her savage foes in the 
memorable and decisive battle of Point Pleasant, 
and closed one war, just in time to prepare for 
another and graver. 

1 It was on the occasion of mak- world, — that for solidity of reason- 
ing his motion, (20th of January ing, force of sagacity, and wisdom 
1775,) for the withdrawal of the of conclusion, under such a com- 
troops from Boston, that Lord plication of difficult circumstances, 
Chatham spoke thus of the pro- no nation or body of men can 
ceedings of the Congress of 1774 : stand in preference to the General 

"When your lordships look at Congress at Philadelphia. I trust it 

the papers transmitted us from is obvious to your lordships that all 

America; when you consider their attempts to impose servitude upon 

decency, firmness, and wisdom, you such men, to establish despotism 

cannot but respect their cause and over such a mighty continental na- 

wish to make it your own. For tion, must be futile, must be vain." 

myself, I must declare and avow See another version of the same 

that, in all my reading and obser- noble panegyric, which, with pre- 

vation, and history has been my cisely the same sentiments, varies 

favorite study, — I have read Thu- somewhat in language, in Bel- 

cydides, and have studied and ad- sham's History of Great Britain, 

mired the master States of the vol. VI. p. 99. 
vol. I. 6 



62 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

It was under these circumstances that Mr. 
Madison wrote to his friend Bradford on the 
20th of January, 1775 :— 

" We are very busy at present, in raising men 
and procuring the necessaries for defending our- 
selves and our friends in case of a sudden inva- 
sion. The extensiveness of the demands of the 
Congress, and the pride of the British nation, 
together with the wickedness of the present min- 
istiy, seem in the judgment of our politicians to 
require a preparation for extreme events. There 
will by the Spring, I expect, be some thousands 
of well-trained, high-spirited men ready to meet 
danger, whenever it appears, who are influenced 
by no mercenary principles, but bearing their 
expenses, and having the prospect of no recom- 
pense but the honor and safety of their country. 

" I suppose the inhabitants of your province 
are more reserved in their behaviour, if not 
more easy in their apprehensions, from the prev- 
alence of Quaker principles and politics. The 
Quakers are the only people with us, w r ho refuse 
to accede to the continental association. I can- 
not forbear suspecting them to be under the 
control and direction of the leaders of the party 
in your quarter ; for I take those of them that 
we have to be too honest and simple to have 
any sinister or secret views, and I do not ob- 
serve anything in the association inconsistent 
with their religious principles. When I say 
they refuse to accede to the association, my 



CORRECTION OF AN HISTORICAL ERROR. 63 

meaning is, that they refuse to sign it, — that 
being the method used among us to distinguish 
friends from foes, and to oblige the common 
people to a more strict observance of it. I 
have never heard whether the like method has 
been adopted in the other governments. 

" I have not seen the following in print, and 
it seems so just a specimen of Indian eloquence 
and mistaken valor that I think you will be 
pleased with it. You must make allowance for 
the nnskilfulness of the interpreter." [He then 
gives the " Speech of Logan, a Shawanese chief, 
to Lord Dunmore," in the same words (with a 
few very slight variations) in which it afterwards 
appeared in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia.] * 

The foregoing letter of Mr. Madison leads to 
the correction of a prevalent historical error 
with regard to the time when military prepara- 
tions were begun in Virginia for the vindication 
by force, if it should prove necessary, of the 
rights asserted by the Colonies. The hitherto 
accredited account is, that the resolutions for 
arming and embodying a portion of the militia, 
moved by Mr. Henry in the convention which 
assembled in Richmond, on the 20th of March, 
1775, and adopted by that body, sounded the 
first note of preparation for an impending con- 

1 The last paragraph of this per of New York of the 16 th of 

letter of Mr. Madison was pub- February, 1775, as " an extract of 

lished without his name, a few a letter from Virginia." See Amer- 

weeks after its date, together with ican Archives, 4th series, vol. I. 

the speech of Logan, in a newspa- p. 1020. 



64 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

flict of arms; and that, down to that time, the 
older and more cautious leaders had been su- 
pinely relying, and were even then disposed to 
rely, upon the vain and delusive remedies of 
" petition, commercial non-intercourse, and pas- 
sive fortitude." Such is the view presented by 
an eloquent biographer of Mr. Henry, 1 who, with 
a commendable bias in favor of the patriotism, 
spirit, and sagacity of his illustrious subject, has 
not been sufficiently on his guard against the 
tendency of that bias to depreciate, in compar- 
ison, both the general spirit of the times, and 
the merits of other illustrious actors in the same 
eventful scenes. But the truth of history, how- 
ever it may slumber for a season in unknown 
or forgotten documents, awakes at last, and deals 
impartial justice to all. 

The letter of Mr. Madison proves, that, two 
months at least in advance of Mr. Henry's prop- 
osition, there was a general concurrence of pub- 
lic men in the necessity of u preparation for 
extreme events," and that a military organiza- 
tion was already in progress in Virginia, which, 
by the Spring, would offer to the country " some 
thousands of well-trained, high-spirited men, ready 
to meet danger, whenever it appears." 

In a most valuable and authentic repository 
of original documents, we find a letter from a 
gentleman in Maryland to his correspondent in 
Glasgow, dated as early as the 1st of November, 

1 See Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, pp. 114-124. 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONTEST. 65 

1774, in which the following statements are 
made : " The province of Virginia is raising one 
company in every county, which will make a 
body of six thousand men. They are all inde- 
pendent ; and so great is the ambition to get 
among them, that men who served as command- 
ing officers last war and have large fortunes, 
have offered themselves as private men." 1 And 
in the same collection is an official letter from 
Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, to the Earl 
of Dartmouth, secretary for the Colonies, dated 
Williamsburg, 24th of December, 1774, in which 
the Governor says : " Every county is now arm- 
ing a company of men, whom they call an inde- 
pendent company, for the avowed purpose of 
protecting their committees, and to be employed 
against government, if occasion require. The 
committee of one county has proceeded so far 
as to swear the men of their independent com- 
pany to execute all orders which shall be given 
them from the committee of their county." 2 

Nor was this an irregular popular movement, 
without the well-considered and deliberate sanc- 



1 See American Archives, 4th who investigated with great care 
series, pp. 953 and 1062. and industry the transactions of 

2 Although a committee of the these times, and had also the 
House of Burgesses in June, 1775, advantage of consulting living 
in an elaborate report on the contemporary testimony on the 
causes of the public disturbances subject, expresses his decided 
which had then arisen, complained " conviction, upon proofs altogelh- 
of this letter of Lord Dunmore, er satisfactory to his mind," that 
and impeached some of its state- the leading fact stated by Lord 
ments, yet an intelligent historian, Dunmore was true, and that " at 

6* 



66 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

tion of the leading men of the country. In the 
address of the Continental Congress to the 
inhabitants of the Colonies, in the month of Oc- 
tober preceding, which was the work of a dis- 
tinguished Virginia patriot, Richard Henry Lee, 
after detailing the measures of a pacific character 
which had been adopted by that body, the fol- 
lowing significant and impressive counsel was 
given. a But we think ourselves bound in duty 
to observe to you that the schemes agitated 
against these Colonies have been so conducted 
as to render it prudent that you should extend 
your views to mournful events and be, in all 
respects, prepared for every contingency." That 
the contingency of an appeal to arms, with the 
necessity of preparation for it, was in the mind 
of Washington at this time, is proved by his 
enthusiastic declaration in open convention that 
" he was ready to raise, and subsist at his own 
expense, a body of one thousand men," for the 
defence of the liberties of the country. 1 

The noble resolves of the Virginia officers, at 
a meeting held by them in the bosom of the 
western forest on the 5th day of November, 
1774, just after they had terminated their glo- 
rious campaign against the Indians, pledging 
themselves, their swords still unsheathed, " to 

the time of writing his letter, a Virginia by Skelton Jones, 4th 

company of men was arming in Burk, p. 41, in note. 

almost every county, if not in i See Works of John Adams, 

every county, in the Colony." See vol. n. p. 360. 

Continuation of Burk's History of 



SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. 67 

exert every power within them for the defence 
of American liberty," 1 sufficiently testified the 
spirit with which they were animated, and their 
readiness for any contingency. The same spirit 
pervaded the ranks of civil life. 

Its general diffusion, even at an earlier date, 
was evinced in a striking manner by the simul- 
taneous publication of two patriotic appeals from 
different writers, which appeared on the same 
day (28th of July, 1774,) in Williamsburg : one 
by the celebrated civilian and jurist, Thomson Ma- 
son, telling his countrymen that, if their peace- 
ful and constitutional efforts for redress should 
fail, " you must draw your swords in a just 
cause, and rely upon that God, who assists the 
righteous, to support your endeavours to pre- 
serve the liberty he gave, and the love of which 
he hath implanted in your hearts as essential to 
your nature." The other by an anonymous but 
most able and eloquent writer, concluding with 
this bold and lofty invocation : " Let us, then, 
protest against the authority of Parliament in 
every case whatever ; . let us forbid our magis- 
trates to be governed by their acts, on pain of 
incurring the just indignation of an injured peo- 
ple ; and above all, let us remember, in times 
of necessity, that with the sword our forefathers 
obtained their constitutional rights, and by the 
sword it is our duty to defend them." 2 

1 American Archives, (4th se- 2 Idem, pp. 647 and 653. 
ries,) vol. i. p. 962. 



68 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

With these evidences before us of the spirit 
of the times, and the well-attested fact that an 
imposing military organization had already taken 
place in Virginia, under the auspices of the sev- 
eral county committees, of which a large majority 
of the convention were doubtless active mem- 
bers, the assertion that the convention shrank 
back in terror and alarm from the comparatively 
tame proposition of Mr. Henry for embodying, 
arming, and disciplining a portion of the militia, 
and that it required " his steadier eye and deeper 
insight," his "firm and manly heart," to push 
them from the precipice, to which they still 
clung with "suppliant tenderness," 1 must appear 
rash indeed. 

If there were enlightened and leading mem- 
bers of the convention who opposed the adop- 
tion of Mr. Henry's resolutions, it must have 
been because, with the knowledge they possessed 
of the extensive military organization which had 
already taken place and was still going on in 
Virginia, they considered them unnecessary for 
any practical purpose, — that, by a needless proc- 
lamation of our preparations to the adverse party, 
who would thus be stimulated to arm in turn, 
their adoption would prove injurious to the rela- 
tive strength of the Colonies, — and that, if any 
new measure were called for, it ought to be of 
a more vigorous and efficient character. Accord- 
ingly, that faithful and well-tried patriot, Robert 

1 Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, ubi supra. 



JUST CLAIMS OF PATRICK HENRY. 69 

Carter Nicholas, classed among the halting and 
laggard opponents of Mr. Henry's resolutions, 
the moment they were carried by a vote of the 
convention, rose and moved the substitution of 
a more efficient system of defence by raising ten 
thousand regulars, instead of embodying a por- 
tion of the militia. 1 

In rectifying, by the testimony of Mr. Mad- 
ison and others, an historical error which does in- 
justice to many of the truest patriots of Virginia, 
as well as the spirit of her people in a crisis of 
great public trial, no design has been entertained 
of derogating, in any degree, from the proud 
merits of Mr. Henry. His, indeed, was a distin- 
guished and splendid role. By his ever memo- 
rable resolutions in opposition to the Stamp 
Act, and the lofty eloquence with which he sus- 
tained them, he struck a timely blow which 
resounded through America and the world, and 
roused a spirit that never slumbered till its 
great work was accomplished. The moment was 
opportune and critical ; and he seized it with a 

1 At the succeeding convention ion. Writing to General Wash- 
in July, 1775, the more efficient ington on the 14th of October, 
system proposed by Mr. Nicholas 1775, of the proceedings of this 
was actually adopted. As this gen- convention, he says : " Our friend 
tleman, with Mr. Pendleton, Mr. the Treasurer (R. C. Nicholas) 
Bland and others, has been re- was the warmest man in the con- 
proached with backwardness in the vention for immediately raising a 
earlier movements of the Revolu- standing army of not less than four 
tion, it is gratifying to find so thor- thousand men, upon constant pay." 
ough a champion of the cause as See Sparks's Washington, vol. in. 
George Mason bearing the strong- p. 152, in note, 
est testimony to his zeal and decis- 



70 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



bold and felicitous energy that belonged to his 
ardent and impassioned nature. 

His was the temperament and the genius of 
the great popular orator, that fitted him to lead 
at such a moment, and, like Aaron, to proclaim 
the divine message of freedom to his country- 
men, and of wrath and denunciation to their 
oppressors. There were others, like Moses, 1 not 
possessing this superlative gift of eloquence, but 
prepared, when the proper time should come, to 
act their several parts, even the highest, in the 
great drama of national deliverance, with a fore- 
sight, fortitude, and wisdom that could be sur- 
passed by none. 2 

1 The following scriptural par- justice to that venerable public 

allel is strikingly illustrative and servant and to those who, like him, 

true to nature, and is often repro- opposed Mr. Henry's resolutions 

duced in the men of action and on the Stamp Act as inexpedient, 

men of speech in great national requires should not remain un- 

emer^encies : — known. The Stamp Act, which 

"Moses said unto the Lord, was passed in March, 17C5, did 

O my Lord, I am not eloquent, not go into operation till the month 

but slow of speech, and of a slow of November following. When it 

Exodus, chap. IV. v. 10. went into operation, the courts of 



tongue. 

" The Lord said, Is not Aaron 
the Levite thy brother ? I know 
that he can speak well." v. 14. 

" Thou shalt speak unto him, 
and put words in his mouth." v. 15. 



Virginia universally ceased from 
the transaction of civil business, in 
order to avoid the necessity of 
srivine effect to the obnoxious act. 
After the lapse of a few months, 



" And he shall be thy spokes- however, such were the inconven- 



man unto the people, and he shall 
be, even he shall be to thee instead 
of a mouth, and thou shalt be to 
him instead of God." v. 16. 

2 Among the papers of Mr. 



iences of a total occlusion of the 
courts, that the question was pre- 
sented whether they ought not to 
be reopened, and, in that case, 
whether, in their judicial proceed- 
ings, they should give effect to the 



Madison is a letter addressed to provisions of the Stamp Act. Mr. 
his father by Mr. Pendleton, which Pendleton, a lawyer by profession, 



PATRIOTISM OF LANDED INTEREST. 



71 



Another error, akin to that just noticed, is 
that the great movements of the Revolution in 
Virginia had a purely democratic origin, to which 
the men of large estates, stigmatized as the 
"Landed Aristocracy," 1 were for the most part 
strangers, if not enemies. This version of our 
history is of comparatively recent date, but has 
received countenance from names of so much re- 
spectability in our literature and politics, 2 that, 

was at the same time a magistrate mean constitutional authority in 
of his county, and as such a mem- 
ber of the county court. In the 
discharge of his judicial functions, 
he at once took the bold ground 
of treating the Stamp Act as a nul- 
lity, in consequence of the want of 
constitutional authority in Parlia- 
ment to pass it. This was going a 
step beyond Mr. Henry's resolu- 
tions. He thus announces to his 
friend his determination, and the 
reasons of it : — 

" We must resolve to admit the 
stamps, or proceed without them, 
for to stop all business must be a 

greater evil than either For 

my own part, I never have or will 
enter into noisy and riotous com- 
panies on the subject. My senti- 
ments I shall be always ready to 
communicate to serious men. As 
a magistrate, I have thought it my 
duty to sit, and we have constantly 
opened court ; and I shall not hes- 
itate to determine what people de- 
sire me and run the risk of, them- 
selves ; and having taken an oath 
to decide according to law, shall 
never consider that Act (Stamp 
Act) as such, for want of power, I 



Parliament to pass it. On this 
principle, upon a matter being pro- 
posed at last court within the act, I 
informed the court it was so, and 
then put a general previous ques- 
tion whether they would proceed 
in any business desired, notwith- 
standing that act. They gener- 
ally expressed their intention to 
proceed this Spring, but thought 
it was best to wait awhile longer 
as they had hitherto stopped. — 
Were I applied to for an attach- 
ment, or any other thing within 
my office out of court, I would 
grant it at the party's risk as to 
the validity of it ; for I am not 
afraid of the penalty, at least so 
much as of breaking my oath." 
Manuscript Letter of Edmund 
Pendleton to James Madison, Sr., 
dated Feb. 15, 1766. 

i See Wirt's Life of Patrick 
Henry, pp. 44 and 54. 

2 Mr. Grigsby, in his Discourse 
on the Virginia Convention of 
1776, and Ex-President Tyler, in 
his Oration at Jamestown deliv- 
ered May, 1857. 



72 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

in the retrospect of our annals into which the 
early life of Mr. Madison leads us, it appears 
inexcusable not to pause for a moment to in- 
quire how far it is justified by contemporary 
testimony. 

A simple roll-call of the names which, along 
with Mr. Henry's, will ever stand most conspic- 
uous in the records of this august era of Vir- 
ginia patriotism, would, of itself, seem a sufficient 
answer to so novel a theory. What were Wash- 
ington, the Lees, the Masons, the Pages, the 
Nelsons, not to mention others their numerous 
and gallant compeers in every part of the Col- 
ony, but large landed proprietors, holding, as 
such, a deep stake in the liberties and happiness 
of the country. If such men were, in a certain 
sense, an aristocracy, it was an aristocracy pledged 
by its very nature to the general good, and con- 
stituted, by the advantages of superior fortune 
and education, the vigilant sentinels and faithful 
guardians of the common safety. They were 
the natural leaders of the people in a crisis of 
public danger ; and the people willingly and of 
their own choice, without jealousy or distrust, 
followed their lead. 

That such was the constitution of society in 
Virginia, both politically and morally, at the 
period of the revolutionary struggle, and indeed 
long after, a careful study of our history will 
indisputably prove. If we look at the compo- 
sition of the county committees which, at the 



COUNTY COMMITTEES. 73 

time of which we are now speaking, were in- 
trusted with large and almost dictatorial powers 
to provide for the public safety, we shall see 
that it was the men of estates, of property and 
education, who were invariably placed upon them 
by the public voice. In the county of Mr. Mad- 
ison's birth and residence, we find that on the 
22d of December, 1774, a month preceding the 
date of his letter given above, his father, prob- 
ably the largest proprietor of the county, was 
made chairman of the committee, and that the 
names of Taylor, Barbour, Taliaferro, and other 
well known proprietors, appear upon the list of 
its members ; and his own, " James Madison, Jr.," 
though then a young man of twenty-three years 
only, also among them, — an honorable distinction 
accorded to his early patriotism and ability, and 
a presage of his future services to the country. 

The names of Archibald Cary, Robert Carter 
Nicholas, Peyton Randolph, George Wythe, Ben- 
jamin Harrison, and others, with whom the pos- 
session of property was not supposed to infer 
an indifference to liberty, appear upon these 
county committees as early as the year 1774. 
George Washington, whose large fortune cer- 
tainly did not Impair the force of his patriotism, 
was chairman of the county committee of Fair- 
fax ; and at a meeting of that committee, held 
on the 17th of January, 1775, Col. Washington 
presiding, resolutions were passed for arming 
and organizing the militia of the county, in 

VOL. I. 7 



74 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

which the same considerations were set forth, 
and in the same language, which were after- 
wards employed by Mr. Henry in the resolutions 
moved by him in the convention, and for which, 
as we have seen, he has been specially applauded 
as the originator of a bold and necessary meas- 
ure, in advance of all his contemporaries. 1 

With what noble and generous zeal these pa- 
triotic men of fortune in Virginia devoted them- 
selves to the vindication of American rights in 
the day of peril, is shown by the contemporary 
testimony already cited. Many of them, accorcl- 

1 That the reader may the better judge of this coincidence, which 
could hardly have been accidental, we annex one of the Fairfax reso- 
lutions, (which, it will be perceived, was avowedly but an echo to an 
opinion expressed by the Maryland Convention,) and the correspond 
ing resolution offered by Mr. Henry in the Virginia Convention : — 

Fairfax Resolution, adopted 17th Mr. Henri/ s Resolution, offered 23d 
of January, 1775. of March, 1775. 
" Resolved, That this commit- " Resolved, That a well-regu- 
tee do concur in opinion with the lated militia, composed of gentle- 
Provincial Committee of Maryland men and yeomen, is the natural 
that a well-regulated militia, com- strength and only security of a 
posed of gentlemen, freeholders, free government; that such a inl- 
and other freemen, is the natural litia in this Colony would forever 
strength and only stable security render it unnecessary for the moth- 
of a tree government, and that er country to keep among us, for 
such militia will relieve our moth- the purpose of our defence, any 
er country from any expense in standing army of mercenary sol- 
our protection and defence, will diers, alwafs subversive of the 
obviate the pretext for taxing us quiet and dangerous to the liber- 
on thai account, and render it un- ties of the people, and would ob- 
necessary to keep standing armies viate the pretext of taxing us for 
among us, — ever dangerous to lib- their support." 

cr - • See Journal of Virginia Con- 

See Am. Arch. (4th series, vention of 1775, p. 5. 
vol. I. p. 1145. 



CHARACTER OF THE VOLUNTEERS. 



75 



ing to one of the statements quoted above, 
though " men of large fortunes " and having 
served "as commanding officers in the last war," 
entered the ranks of these volunteer companies 
as privates. The volunteers, in general, according 
to Mr. Madison, were " high-spirited men, bearing 
their own expenses, and having no prospect of 
recompense but the honor and safety of their 
country." Such an aristocracy as this was worthy 
to lead, as the only precedence it claimed was a 
precedence of danger, of responsibility, of sacrifice. 1 

i Among the many examples of sibility, which it required a Roman 

the self-sacrificing devotion of this spirit to meet, General Nelson 

noble class of patriots in Virginia, gave himself and all he had, freely 

none was more remarkable than and unhesitatingly, to the cause, 

that of General Thomas Nelson, While nothing could be obtained 

whose statue it has been recently for the supply of the army upon 

determined to place in the illus- the exhausted credit of the State, 

trious group, which is to form the his personal engagements were 

entourage of the Washington mon- readily accepted and never with- 

ument at Richmond. After having held. In this manner, the whole 

signed the Declaration of Inde- of his princely fortune was ab- 

pendence, as one of the delegates sorbed in the payment of his lia- 

of Virginia in Congress, he re- bilities for the public. When the 

turned to his native State to country, in the enjoyment of inde- 

uphold it by his services and ex- pendence, became prosperous and 

ertions in the council and in the powerful, his descendants thought 

field. He was placed in command it not unbecoming to ask of the 

of the militia of the State, and also public councils some retribution 

elected governor, at the most crit- of the immense and generous sac- 

ical period of the war, immediately rifices of their ancestor, 
preceding the surrender of the It was upon this occasion that 

main body of the enemy's forces Mr. Madison, appealed to for his 

at Yorktown. recollection of the services and 

The extraordinary exertion re- losses of General Nelson in the 

quired of Virginia at that time, cause of the country, returned the 

and the low state of her finances following answer, which is so glow- 

and public credit, imposed upon ing and just a tribute to his merits, 

her governor a weight of respon- and to those of another of our 



76 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



The exhibition of so fervid and manly a love 
of liberty by the Virginians of this epoch has 
been thought, by one of the writers already 
alluded to, 1 to be entirely inconsistent with the 
received accounts of the predominance of the 
Cavalier element in the early emigrations to the 
Colony. But if there be any historical fact 
beyond the reach of modern disputation, this, 

revolutionary worthies, whom he 
gracefully associates with him, that 
we cannot deny our readers the 
gratification of its perusal. 



" Montpeliee, Nov. 7, 1833. 

" I regret that my absence from 
the State during his meritorious 
services as a military commander 
and governor, deprived me of the 
opportunity of having any personal 
knowledge of them. But my gen- 
eral acquaintance with his charac- 
ter, and the impressions left by 
whatever was of public notoriety, 
make me readily confide in the 
statements of the petition, and in- 
spire a sincere wish that it may be 
favorably received. 

" My personal acquaintance with 
General Nelson was limited to a 
few opportunities at an early stage 
of the Revolution. It was suffi- 
cient, however, to disclose to me 
his distinguished worth. He was 
excelled by no man in the genr 
erosity of his nature, in the noble- 
ness of his sentiments, in the purity 
of his revolutionary principles, and 
in an exalted patriotism that en- 
sured every service and sacrifice 
that his country might need. 



" With this view of the subject, 
it could not but accord with my 
best sympathies that nothing which 
may be due to the ancestor may 
be withheld from the heirs to it. 
I must be allowed to add that the 
gratification will be increased by 
the knowledge that the benefit will 
be shared by the descendants of 
Governor Page, whose memory 
will always be classed with that 
of the most distinguished patriots 
of the Revolution. Nor was he 
less endeared to his friends, among 
whom I had an intimate place, by 
the interesting accomplishments of 
his mind and the warmth of his so- 
cial affections, than he was to his 
country by the evidence he gave 
of devotion to the republicanism 
of its institutions. 

" With great and cordial re- 
spect, James Madison." 



1 In differing from so learned 
and patriotic a writer, our tribute 

ess for his 
labors in 
commemoration of departed patri- 
ots and worthies, whose services 
and examples form an inseparable 
part of the national inheritance. 



of thanks is none the 
pious and admirable 



CAVALIER ELEMENT IN VIRGINIA. 77 

undoubtedly, is one. At the time of the settle- 
ment of Virginia, as well as before and after, 
the Puritan controversy had divided the English 
nation into two great parties, — the one demand- 
ing change and reform, especially in the Church ; 
the other adhering to the established order of 
things, both in Church and State. The latter 
did not, in point of fact, receive the name of 
Cavalier till a somewhat later period, when it 
was given as the antitheton of Roundhead, ap- 
plied to its adversary. 1 But in historical disqui- 
sitions of the present day, the two parties are 
known from their origin under the denomina- 
tions of Puritan and Cavalier. 

No fact is better established than that the 
early English emigrants to Virginia, for the first 
half century of her history, with here and there 
an exception serving only to prove the general 
rule, were " loyal subjects to both King and 
Church." 2 It could not but be so ; for the 
stringent laws of the Colony from the begin- 
ning, with regard to Church conformity, rendered 
it altogether an uninviting abode to persons of 
other sentiments, while the subversion of Throne 
and Church in England, during the civil wars 
which soon followed, furnished a new and super- 
added motive for the Cavaliers to seek an 
asylum in a land where their principles and 

1 According to Clarendon, these party designations were first ap- 
plied in the year 1641. See History of the Rebellion, book IV. 

2 Jefferson. See his Writings, vol. I. p. 31. 

7* 



78 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

predilections were improscribed. Down to the 
period of the Restoration, then, the great mass 
of the emigration from England to Virginia must 
have been, as unquestionable historical proofs 
show that it was, of the Cavalier strain ; and 
I bis is farther demonstrated by the general and 
joyous enthusiasm with which that event was 
hailed in Virginia, 

At that time the population of Virginia had 
acquired a stable character. It approached to 
forty thousand ; x and the natural increase upon 
such a stock by children born upon the soil, 
whose multiplication had been, fourteen years be- 
fore, the subject of special and touching thanks- 
giving in an act of the Colonial Assembly, 2 
insured the future and steady growth of the 
Colony, with no other than the ordinary acces- 
sions from abroad. Virginia was now the cher- 
ished home and abiding place of her inhabitants; 
and all classes, native and adopted, united in 
zealous and filial efforts to build up her pros- 
perity, and to watch over and guard her inter- 
ests and rights. 

After the Restoration, there came in a few, 

1 It actually surpassed that 2 " God Almighty, among many 

amount a few years after, (in his other blessings, hath vouch- 

1671,) according to the official safed increase of children to this 

statement of the governor, Sir Colony, who are now multiplied 

William Berkeley. See his An- to a considerable number," was 

swers to Enquiries of the Lords of the language of the Assembly in 

the Committee of the Colonies in the act of 1646, here alluded to. 

Chalmers, p. 325, and n. Hen. Hen. Stat, vol. i. p. 336. 
Stat., pp. 511-517. 



CAVALIER ELEMENT IN VIRGINIA. 79 

and but a few, of the Oliverian soldiers ; soon 
after, some of the followers of the Duke of 
Monmouth, who were banished to Virginia ; then 
came the interesting band of Huguenots, who 
were concentrated in a single settlement on the 
James River, above its Falls ; and then a number 
of Scotch-Irish and German families, who settled 
for the most part in the transmontane valley of 
Virginia. They were all valuable accessions to 
the progressive development of the Colony ; but 
the main stream of emigration continued to be 
from England and Scotland, and of those who 
brought with them loyal attachments to the 
constitution of England, in both Church and 
State. 

If we descend from this general historical view 
of the early population of Virginia to the gene- 
alogy of individual families, we are met by the 
indisputable fact that many of the leading and 
most distinguished patriots of the Revolution 
were the descendants of men who had sealed, 
with their blood in the field of battle, their loy- 
alty to Charles I. in his contest with the Long 
Parliament. Washington's grandfather was the 
first cousin of the Colonel Henry Washington 
who, in 1643, so gallantly led a forlorn hope for 
the King at the taking of Bristol, and three 
years afterward, with desperate courage, defended 
a feeble and reduced garrison, to the last ex- 
tremity, against the overwhelming forces of Fair- 
fax. The paternal ancestor of George Mason 



80 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISOIS. 

raised a corps for the service of the King, which 
he led in person against the troopers of Crom- 
well, and continued to adhere to the royal stand- 
ard with unshaken fidelity, till the "crowning 
mercy" of the field of Worcester crushed the 
last hopes of the Cavaliers, and drove him, with 
other gallant spirits, to seek a new home in the 
distant and unsubdued Colony of Virginia. 

The Cavalier blood of the noble Falkland, who 
offered up his life on the plains of Newbury, a 
costly sacrifice to a romantic sentiment of loy- 
alty and honor, flowed in the veins of a Virginia 
patriot, Archibald Cary, 1 than whom Liberty never 
had a firmer friend, or Tyranny a more deter- 
mined foe. The Lees, the Blands, the Carters, 
the Randolphs, the Digges', the Byrds, and oth- 
ers among the foremost patriots of the day, 
whose genealogies either curiosity or filial piety 
may have explored, were of well known Cavalier 
descent. 

This new interpretation of the early annals of 
Virginia, so contrary to hitherto received ac- 
counts and well attested history, seems to have 
arisen from a strange and exaggerated miscon- 
ception of the character of the Cavalier. The 
Cavalier, it is said, was a slave,— doubly a slave 
to King and Church. How does this picture 

1 It was Archibald Cary, then of creating a Dictator in Virginia, 

Speaker of the Senate, whose stern during the first year of the revolu- 

purpose and republican firmness tionary war. See Girardin, Burk's 

are supposed to have had great Hist, of Va., vol. iv. p. 190, and 

influence in defeating the project Wirt's Life of Henry, p. 205. 



CAVALIER ELEMENT IN VIRGINIA. 81 

accord with the sober testimony of history ? 
What is the judgment of English historians, even 
of the school of politics most decidedly opposed 
to the pretensions of the King in his memorable 
contest with the Parliament? The great oracle 
of that school, and the most admired historical 
writer of the present day, says: "Many men, 
whose virtues and abilities would have done 
honor to any cause, ranged themselves on the 
side of the King." ] The biographer of the great 
parliamentary leader, Hampden, while celebrating 
with noble zeal the just praises of that incom- 
parable patriot and statesman, does not hesitate 
to say that there stood opposed to him, and on 
the side of the King, many "who were high- 
minded and steady friends of liberty." 2 

Among them were Falkland, of whom we have 
just spoken ; the virtuous Southampton, whose 
father had been the watchful guardian and un- 
flinching champion of Virginia freedom in the 
ardent conflicts of the London Company ; the 
chivalric Sir Bevill Grenvil, 3 whose name, for 
generosity and elevation of spirit, must ever be 
linked in glorious companionship with that of 
Falkland; Sir Ralph Hopton, Lord Capel, the 
Marquis of Hertford, and others, some of whom. 
it is well known, had firmly cooperated with the 

1 Macaulay, Hist. Eng. vol. i. reer, and a noble letter written by 
p. 88. hini to his friend, Sir Joseph Tre- 

2 Lord Nugent, Life of Harnp- lawney, in Nugent, vol. II. pp. 192- 
den, vol. II. p. 190. 198. 

3 See some incidents of his ca- 



82 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



opponents of arbitrary power in all those great 
measures by which, during the first nine months 
of the Long Parliament, the cause of British con- 
stitutional freedom was vindicated, and, as they 
hoped, entrenched against the danger of future 
assault. When, a few months afterwards, the 
" Grand Remonstrance " sounded the signal of 
what seemed to many an approaching revolution, 
men, who were before united on the ground of 
the constitution, separated, more perhaps accord- 
ing to their hopes and fears than their principles, 
and some rallied to the side of the monarchy, 
while others embraced that of the Parliament. 1 



1 The class of country gentlemen, 
who had gradually risen to great 
influence and power, played a most 
important part on the one side and 
the other in the mighty questions 
which were then at issue. Lord 
Macaulay, whose bold and striking 
generalizations occasionally substi- 
tute brilliant fancy sketches for 
sober historical portraits, has, it 
seems to us, in the sweeping com- 
prehensiveness of the language 
used by him, given rather a delu- 
sive picture of the country gentle- 
man of the seventeenth century ; 
whom he describes, even those of 
large fortunes and collegiate edu- 
cations, as coarse, vulgar, sensual, 
ignorant of the refinements of so- 
ciety, and destitute of every liberal 
and cultivated taste. 

This picture may be true to a 
certain extent, with reference to 
the reign of Charles II., when a 



sudden and rapid degeneracy of 
manners had taken place under 
the licentiousness brought in by 
the restored monarch, as well as 
from the demoralizing effect of the 
previous civil convulsions. But if 
we may credit the actual testimony 
of contemporary witnesses, and 
not the " lighter literature," which 
is cited by him as equal, if not 
higher, authority, the picture this 
great historical writer has drawn 
of the country gentleman of the 
seventeenth century, bears but lit- 
tle resemblance to the improved 
and cultivated country life of the 
time of Charles I., when it showed, 
perhaps, as much genuine refine- 
ment as it has ever since attained. 
Let any one read the charming 
accounts he will find in the auto- 
biography of Clarendon, of the 
elegant hospitality exercised by 
Falkland in his paternal seats of 



CAVALIER ELEMENT IN VIRGINIA. 83 

Without entering into the national dissensions 
in England farther than to render the homage 
due to the truth of history, we cannot but say, 
while sympathizing as republicans with the pop- 
ular leaders in that great civil contest, — always 
excepting him whose guilty ambition, notwith- 
standing many great qualities, made him in the 
end the chief of apostates, as he was the pro- 
foundest of dissemblers, — that there were among 
the Cavaliers also brave and noble and free spir- 
its. Certain it is that their descendants in Amer- 
ica, who w r ere almost exclusively, as we have 
seen, the settlers of Virginia during the first 
half-century of her existence, were here the vig- 
ilant and faithful guardians of the rights, liberties, 
and interests of the people of the Colony. Hand 
in hand with the constantly recurring manifesta- 
tions of their loyalty to the King, they firmly 
and unremittingly asserted those "liberties, fran- 
chises, and immunities of natural-born English- 
men " which they brought with them to America 
under the plighted faith of their charters, and 

Tew and Burford ; of the polished clined to follow the authority of 

reunions of science, letters, virtue, Swift, who gave it as his opinion, 

and taste in the circle of friends founded on what he had heard 

who habitually resorted to him from some who lived in those times, 

there ; with the like accounts which as well as what he had read of 

have come down to us of the social them, that " the highest period of 

life and rural enjoyments of Hamp- politeness in England was the 

den, and the occasional glimpses peaceable part of King Charles the 

we meet with in some of the works First's reign." See Hints towards 

of Lord Bacon, of the dawn of a an Essay on Conversation, by 

new era of taste and manners ; Dean Swift. 
and we shall be much more in- 



84 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

which they never ceased to olaim and vindicate 
as their indefeasible birthright. 

At the very moment of adopting a solemn 
Declaration rilled with expressions of the most 
zealous loyalty and gratitude to the King for his 
protection, and "his many royal favors and gra- 
cious blessings," and protesting their unwilling- 
ness (to use their own language) "to degenerate 
from the condition of their birth, being born 
under a monarchical, and not a popular and 
tumultuary government," they repeat and " con- 
firm," in terms of peculiar energy, the great con- 
stitutional principle, already boldly proclaimed by 
them, of immunity from taxation except by their 
own consent. 1 

Again, upon the pages of the Colonial Statute 
Book we find an enactment, by which any as- 
persion upon the memory of the late King 
(Charles I.) is made a highly criminal offence, 
and the questioning of the title of his son and 
heir to the supreme government of the Colony 
declared to be high treason, preceding, by an in- 
terval of only two years, that great Charter of 
the liberties of the Colony obtained by these 
same Cavaliers, with arms in their hands, from 
the commissioners of the Parliament; — a charter 
by which were solemnly guaranteed to the colo- 
nists "all such freedoms and privileges as be- 
long to the free-born people of England"; their 
" Grand Assembly " recognized as the legitimate 

1 Hen. Stat. vol. i. pp. 232 and 242. 



CAVALIER ELEMENT IN VIRGINIA. 85 

representative and guardian of their rights; free- 
dom from taxes, except such as they should 
impose, acknowledged ; and " neither forts nor 
castles to be erected, nor garrisons to be main- 
tained without their consent " ; the same freedom 
of trade "with all nations" secured to Virginia 
as the people of England enjoy ; and finally, a 
full and total indemnity granted from "all acts, 
words, or writings done, spoken, or written against 
the Parliament or Commonwealth of En gland 
from the beginning of the world to this day." 1 
Thus did the Virginians of that day unite with 
the faith and loyalty of Cavaliers, the free spirit 
and sturdy independence of the ancient barons 
of England. 

This brief review of the early history of Vir- 
ginia seemed indispensable, not only for the re- 
establishment of historical truth, but as furnishing 
the necessary key to the conduct of her patriots 
and statesmen at the period of which we are 
treating. Virginia still fondly cherished her con- 
nection with the mother country ; she was loyal 
to the King as the constitutional head of the 
empire ; but she was proud and jealous of the 
birthright of English freedom, which she claimed 
as her undoubted heritage. These blended feel- 
ings, expressed in all the acts of her public 
authorities, received nowhere a nobler utterance 

1 See convention entered into pp. 363-368, and Jefferson's Notes 
with the Parliamentary Commis- on Virginia, p. 214. 
sioners in 1651, Hen. Stat. vol. I. 
vol. i. 8 



86 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

than in the frank and unstudied language of the 
Virginia militia officers at their meeting, already 
referred to, after the victorious close of their 
campaign against the Indians. There are, per- 
haps, no better exponents of the true popular 
feelings of a country than its citizen-soldiers, 
called momentarily from the pursuits of civil life 
by a crisis of public danger. 

The following resolution was unanimously adopt- 
ed on the occasion alluded to : — 

" Resolved, That we will bear the most faithful 
allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third, 
whilst His Majesty delights to reign over a brave 
and free people; that we will, at the expense of 
life and everything dear and valuable, exert our- 
selves in support of the honor of his crown, and 
the dignity of the British empire. But as the 
love of liberty and attachment to the real inter- 
ests and just rights of America outweigh every 
other consideration, we resolve that we will 
exert every power within us for the defence of 
American liberty, and for the support of her just 
rights and privileges, not in any precipitate, riot- 
ous, or tumultuous manner, but when regularly 
called for by the unanimous voice of our coun- 
trymen." 

Here was the heart and mind of Virginia truly 
and manfully spoken. It gives the index to her 
character at this great epoch of her history. 
There was a reverence for authority; an hered- 
itary attachment to the institutions derived from 



CHARACTERISTICS OF VIRGINIA. 



87 



the mother country; a loyalty to the King, so 
long as he was content to " reign over a brave 
and free people;" an undeviating adherence to 
law and order even in her resistance to oppres- 
sion, which did not extinguish, but raised and 
ennobled, her proud spirit of independence, and 
her indomitable love of liberty. 

If some of these were Cavalier traits, we have 
no need to be ashamed of them, as beimr un- 
doubted historical facts ; and if the truth of his- 
tory requires us to add .some others, of the same 
origin perhaps, to the social portraiture of our 
ancestors ; — a genial fondness for sports and 
diversions, 1 an elastic joyousness of temper, a 



1 Nothing, perhaps, is better 
fitted to give an idea of the social 
temperament and habits of the 
Virginians of the middle of the 
last century, and to establish, if 
farther evidence were wanted, the 
genuineness of their Cavalier de- 
scent, than the following festive 
programme, taken from the Vir- 
ginia Gazette of October, 1737 : — 

" We have advice," says the ed- 
itor, " from Hanover county, that 
on Saint Andrew's Day, there are 
to be Horse-Races and several 
other Diversions for the Enter- 
tainment of the Gentlemen and 
Ladies at the Old Field near 
Captain John Bickerton's in that 
county, (if permitted by the Hon. 
Wm. Byrd, esquire, Proprietor of 
the said Land,) the substance of 
which is as follows, viz : 

" It is proposed that 20 Horses 



or Mares do run round a three 
miles Course for a Prize of Five 
Pounds. That every Horse shall 
be entered with Mr. Joseph Fox, 
and that no person be allowed to 
put up a Horse unless he hath 
subscribed for the Entertainment 
and paid half a Pistole. 

" That a Hat of the value of 20s. 
be cudgelled for, and that after the 
first challenge made, the Drums 
are to beat every Quarter of an 
Hour for three Challenges round 
the Ring, and none to play with 
their left hand. 

" That a Violin be played for by 
20 Fiddlers ; no person to have 
the liberty of playing unless he 
bring a fiddle with him. After 
the prize is won, they are all to 
play together and each a different 
tune, and to be treated by the 
company. 



88 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



sympathetic nature, a free and uncalculating hos- 
pitality, and too great proneness to inaction and 
self-indulgence, except when the public cause 
summoned to exertion ; — we shall have arrived 
at the outlines of a character, which, although 
not in all respects free from the animadversions 
of the moral censor, yet, in the mixed and im- 
perfect condition of humanity, forming a whole 
that might well be the basis of high deeds and 
noble aspirations. 



"That 12 Boys, of 12 years of 
age, do run 112 yards, for a Hat 
of the. cost of 12 shillings. 

" That a Flag be flying on said 
Day 30 feet high. 

" That a handsome Entertain- 
ment be provided for the sub- 
scribers and their wives ; and such 
of them as are not so happy as to 
have wives, may treat any other 
lady. 

" That Drums, Trumpets, Haut- 
boys, &c, be provided, to play at 
said Entertainment. 

" That after Dinner, the Royal 
Health, His Honor the Governor's, 
&c., are to be drunk. 

" That a Quire of Ballads be 
sung for by a number of Songsters, 
all of them to have Liquor suffi- 
cient to clear their Wind-Pipes. 

" That a pair of Silver Buckles 
be wrestled for by a number of 
brisk young men. 

" That a pair of handsome Shoes 
be danced for. 

" That a pair of handsome Silk 



Stockings of one Pistole value be 
given to the handsomest young 
Country Maid that appears in the 
field. With many other Whim- 
sical and Comical Diversions, too 
numerous to mention. 

" And as this mirth is designed 
to be purely innocent, and void of 
offence, all persons resorting there 
are desired to behave themselves 
with decency and sobriety ; the 
subscribers being resolved to dis- 
countenance all immorality with 
the utmost rigor." 

From the number of competitors 
on the violin, each bringing his own 
violin, the genius for that instru- 
ment must have been widely dif- 
fused, as well as highly appreciated, 
at that day in Virginia ; and when 
it is recollected that .Jefferson and 
Henry were both ready perform- 
ers, it would seem, contrary to the 
notion of Themistocles, that a man 
might play on the fiddle, and be, at 
the same time, capable of raising a 
small to be a great State. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Battle of Lexington — Lord Dunmore's Removal of the Gunpowder 
from Williamsburg — Assembling of the Independent Companies 
at Fredericksburg — Patrick Henry's Expedition to reclaim the 
Gunpowder — Address of Thanks to him from the County Com- 
mittee of Orange drawn by Mr. Madison — Spirited Proceedings 
of the Committee in the Case of the Rev. Mr. Wingate — Lord 
Dunmore again convokes the Assembly— His Altercation with the 
House of Burgesses — The Governor quits the Palace and takes up 
his Residence on board a Ship of War — Protest and Closing 
Scene of the last House of Burgesses in Virginia— Another Con- 
vention meets at Richmond — Its Proceedings — Meeting of the 
Second Continental Congress — Army raised for the Defence of 
American Liberty — Intention of National Independence disclaimed 
— Sincerity of these Professions called in Question by European 
Writers — Mr. Madison's Testimony on the Subject— Subsequent 
Measures of the King and Parliament bring on the Issue of Inde- 
pendence — Public Mind in Virginia ripened for the Event by the 
iniquitous Conduct of the Royal Governor — New Convention 
elected in Virginia — Mr. Madison chosen a Member. 

In the preceding chapter we have seen the 
commencement of preparations in Virginia for 
the contingency, which seemed daily becoming 
more and more probable, of an appeal to arms 
in vindication of the rights of America. These 
preparations were soon justified by grave and 
signal events. In Massachusetts, an expedition 

8* 



90 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

set on foot by Governor Gage, to destroy some 
military stores collected at Concord, brought on 
a conflict of arms, in which many lives were lost 
on both sides, and which made the 19th of April, 
1775, ever memorable as the date of the first 
overt act of war in the controversy between the 
mother country and the Colonies. Governor 
Dunmore in Virginia, pursuing the same pol- 
icy of cutting off the means of defence from 
America, but with far less of military boldness in 
its execution, caused a party of marines from 
the Magdalen sloop of war, lying in James River, 
to land on the 20th of the month, and under 
cover of the night, to take from the magazine 
in Williamsburg fifteen or twenty barrels of gun- 
powder, and transfer them on board that vessel. 
This proceeding of the governor kindled a 
flame of indignation and excitement in every 
part of the Colony, as the intelligence of it was 
communicated from place to place. In Freder- 
icksburg, on the 24th of April, as soon as infor- 
mation of what had occurred was received there, 
a meeting of the Independent Company of the 
town was called, at which a resolution was adopted 
to hold themselves in readiness to march, as 
light-horse, to Williamsburg on the following 
Saturday, (the 29th,) "for the purpose of recover- 
ing the gunpowder and securing the arms in 
the magazine." 1 At the same time, a letter was 

1 See letter to Capt. William Grayson of Prince William County, 
in American Archives, (4th series,) vol. II. p. 395. 



ASSEMBLING OF INDEPENDENT COMPANIES. 91 

drawn up by the officers of the company, Hugh 
Mercer, George Weedon, Alexander Spotswood, 
and John Willis, (of whom the three first-named 
afterward bore distinguished parts in the war 
of the Revolution,) and sent by express to the 
independent companies of the neighbouring coun- 
ties, inviting their cooperation. A letter was 
also addressed by these gentlemen to Col. George 
Washington, informing him that " the gentlemen 
of the Independent Company of Fredericksburg 
think this first public insult is not to be tamely 
submitted to, and determine, with your approba- 
tion, to join any other bodies of armed men, 
who are willing to appear in support of the 
honor of Virginia, as well as to secure the mil- 
itary stores yet • remaining in the magazine. It 
is proposed to march from hence on Saturday 
next for Williamsburg, properly accoutred as 
light-horsemen." 1 

This invitation to the independent companies 
of the neighbouring counties was nobly responded 
to ; and before the day fixed for the departure 
to Williamsburg, "fourteen companies of light- 
horse, consisting of upwards of six hundred well 
armed and disciplined men, friends of constitu- 
tional liberty and America," assembled in Fred- 
ericksburg, prepared to vindicate the honor of 
Virginia and the cause of constitutional freedom 
at every hazard. 9 In the mean time, a letter was 
received from the Hon. Peyton Randolph, late 

1 American Archives, (4th series,) vol. u. p. 387. 2 Ibid. p. 443. 



92 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

speaker of the House of Burgesses, and Presi- 
dent of the Continental Congress, acquainting 
the gentlemen congregated at Fredericksburg 
that the governor had given u full assurance " 
of satisfaction in the affair of the gunpowder, 
and advising that "they should proceed no far- 
ther at this time." In consequence of this infor- 
mation and advice, a council of the officers and 
other deputies of the several independent com- 
panies was held to deliberate on the course 
which it w r as proper for them, under these circum- 
stances, to pursue. It was determined, in defer- 
ence to the advice given from so venerable and 
patriotic a source, to proceed no farther at this 
time; but "considering," they said, "the just 
rights and liberty of America to be greatly en- 
dangered by the violent and hostile proceedings 
of an arbitrary ministry, and being firmly re- 
solved to resist such attempts at the utmost 
hazard of our lives and fortunes, we do now 
pledge ourselves to each other to be in readi- 
ness, at a moment's warning, to reassemble, and 
by force of arms to defend the law, the liberty, 
and rights of this or any sister Colony, from 
unjust and wicked invasion." This noble and 
spirited declaration was countersigned with the 
significant motto, "God save the Liberties of 
America," as opposed to the traditional and stere- 
otyped formula of "God save the King," with 
which the proclamations of the governor invaria- 
bly concluded. 



PATRICK HENRY'S EXPEDITION. 93 

A few days after these proceedings in Freder- 
icksburg, Patrick Henry put himself at the head 
of the independent company of Hanover, and 
marched towards Williamsburg with the view of 
demanding compensation for the gunpowder re- 
moved by the orders of the governor, or, as it 
was expressed at the time, " making reprisals upon 
the King's property sufficient to replace the gun- 
powder taken out of the magazine." The King's 
receiver-general, having charge of all the fiscal 
resources of the crown in the Colony, being 
thus a principal object of the movement, a de- 
tachment was sent to his residence in King Wil- 
liam County ; but not finding him there, they 
rejoined the main body of the company at Don- 
castle's ordinary, sixteen miles from Williams- 
burg. Here the whole party remained till the 
following morning, when the receiver-general, 
Mr. Corbin, sent up from Williamsburg his bill 
of exchange for £330, the estimated value of 
the gunpowder, for which Mr. Henry gave his 
receipt in due form, and he and his companions 
returned in peaceful triumph to their county. 

This striking and lucky coup de main} — the 

i It seems impossible to charac- Henry at Doncastle's ordinary, did 
terize in any other terms this for- not spare, in their criticisms, either 
tunate adventure of Mr. Henry, the terrified royal governor, or the 
While its success excited much en- triumphant popular leader. The 
thusiasm among the people, there late Governor Page was, at the 
were those who, comparing the time, a member of Lord Dun- 
result with the inadequacy of the more's council, — the only one who 
means employed to produce it, and stood out against his arbitrary 
adverting also to the pause of Mr. measures, — and was a witness of 



94 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

success of which must have been owing, in no 
small degree, to the really imposing military dem- 
onstration that had taken place at Fredericks- 
burg, and which showed there was a large and 
effective force ready " at a moment's warning to 
reassemble " and supply Mr. Henry's deficiency of 
numbers, — drew upon the Hanover volunteers 
and their distinguished leader the warm and en- 
thusiastic plaudits of the people. Nowhere were 
these sentiments more boldly and energetically 
expressed than by the county committee of Or- 
ano-e, of which the father of Mr. Madison was 
chairman, and he himself, as we have seen, a 
member, and, without doubt, the member selected, 
on this occasion, to give expression to their sen- 
timents, as we find their resolutions among his 
papers, and in his own handwriting. 

After resolving; that u the resentment shown 
by the Hanover volunteers, and the reprisals 
they have made on the King's property, highly 

the progress and termination of seconded nor opposed me, he was 

the whole affair. In a brief auto- greatly embarrassed. As I was 

biographical memoir, drawn up in never summoned to attend an- 

answer to the inquiries of a friend, other board, I might well suspect 

he says : — I was suspended from my office ; 

" I advised the governor (Lord but as I cared nothing about that, 

Dunmore) to give up the powder I never inquired whether I was or 

and arms he had removed from the not. Patrick Henry, afterwards 

magazine. But he flew into an so famous for his military parade 

outrageous passion, smiting his fist against Dunmore, did actually 

on the table and saying, 'Mr. Page, bully him, but they appeared to 

I am astonished at you.' I calmly me to be mutually afraid of each 

replied I had discharged my duty, other." See the Memoir in the 

and had no other advice to give. Virginia Historical Register, vol 

As the other councillors neither in. p. 112. 



SPIRITED ADDRESS BY MR. MADISON. 95 

merit the approbation of the public, and the 
thanks of this committee," they determine that 
"an address be presented to Captain Patrick 
Henry and the gentlemen Independents of Han- 
over." This address, as the production of Mr. 
Madison's pen, and as evincing the high spirit 
of resistance to tyranny which warmed and ani- 
mated his bosom amid the thickening dangers 
of the crisis, we give in full. 

"May 9, 1775. 

" Gentlemen : We, the committee for the 
county of Orange, having been fully informed 
of your seasonable and spirited proceedings in 
procuring a compensation for the powder fraud- 
ulently taken from the country magazine by com- 
mand of Lord Dunmore, and which it evidently 
appears his lordship, notwithstanding his assur- 
ances, had no intention to restore, entreat you 
to accept their cordial thanks for this testimony 
of your zeal for the honor and interest of your 
country. We take this opportunity also to give 
it as our opinion that the blow struck in the 
Massachusetts government is a hostile attack on 
this and every other Colony, and a sufficient 
warrant to use violence and reprisal in all cases 
in which it may .be expedient for our security 
and welfare. 

" James Madison, Chairman. 
James Taylor, Thomas Barbour, 

Zachariah Burnley, Rowland Thomas, 
James Madison, Jr., William Moore, 

James Walker, Lawrence Taliaferro, 

Henry Scott, Thomas Bell." 



96 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The committee of Orange was particularly dis- 
tinguished at this period of public danger, among 
the county committees of the Colony, for the 
boldness, energy, and public spirit which marked 
all its proceedings. To the instance just given 
may be added another of peculiar and remark- 
able character. It had been represented to the 
committee that a Rev. Mr. Wingate was in pos- 
session of various pamphlets reflecting very in- 
juriously on the conduct and motives of the 
Continental Congress, and in other respects ad- 
verse to the public cause. They immediately 
held a meeting to demand of Mr. Wingate the 
surrender of these anti- American publications ; 
but finding him unwilling to give them up, ex- 
cept on conditions inconsistent with the objects 
they had in view, they at length " jDeremptorily 
insisted, with a determination not to be defeated 
in their intentions." 

When at last the pamphlets were yielded, the 
committee took time to examine them, and ad- 
journed to meet again at the court-house of the 
county on Monday, the 27th of March, 1775. 
The following resolution, the production, doubt- 
less, of their accomplished penman, and instinct 
with the spirit he had early imbibed in defence 
of American rights, was then adopted : — 

" Resolved, That as a collection of the most 
audacious insults on that august body (the grand 
Continental Congress,) and their proceedings, and 
also on the several Colonies from which they 



ARROGANCE OF LORD DUNMORE. 97 

were deputed, particularly New England and Vir- 
ginia, — of the most slavish doctrines of provincial 
government, and of the most impudent false- 
hoods and malicious artifices to excite divisions 
among the friends of America, — these pamphlets 
deserve to be publicly burnt, as a testimony of 
the committee's detestation and abhorrence of tha 
writers and their principles." 

The record then continues : " Which sentence 
was speedily executed in the presence of the 
Independent Company of Orange, and other re- 
spectable inhabitants of the said county, all of 
whom joined in expressing a noble indignation 
against such execrable publications, and their ar- 
dent wishes for an opportunity t of inflicting on 
the authors, publishers, and abettors the punish- 
ment due to their insufferable arrogance and 
atrocious crimes." 

Things were now rapidly hastening to a de- 
cisive issue in Virginia. After the affair of the 
gunpowder, the governor lost all hold on the 
confidence and respect of the Colony. His lan- 
guage as well as conduct, when he had some- 
what recovered from the impression made on his 
nerves by the bold military front exhibited by 
the independent companies throughout the Col- 
ony, became more arrogant and offensive than 
ever. He issued a proclamation denouncing "the 
outrageous and rebellious practices" which had 
taken place, and threatening with "the vengeance 
of offended majesty" those who should hereafter 

VOL. I. 9 



98 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



be found engaged in them. On the occasion of 
some trivial commotion in Williamsburg, he sent 
a message to the magistrates of the city, threat- 
ening " to lay the town in ashes," and at the 
same time holding over the heads of the people 
the menace of "proclaiming freedom to the 
slaves and devastating the Colony." 1 Notwith- 
standing these offensive proceedings on the part 
of the governor, he again called the Assembly 
together, — which had not been convoked since 
the sudden dissolution in May, 1774, — to consider 
the " conciliatory proposition " of Lord North. 

The meeting took place in the capitol at Wil- 
liamsburg on the 1st of June, 1775; and the 
session was opened with a speech of studied, but 
hollow and deceptive, courtesy from the gov- 
ernor. The House of Burgesses was organized 
with a scrupulous observance of all the stereo- 
typed regal formalities. By command of the gov- 
ernor, the} r attended his excellency in the council- 
chamber ; received his permission, or rather order, 
to choose a speaker; afterwards waited upon him 
to present their speaker, who was graciously ap- 
proved ; and then they laid claim to " their an- 
cient rights and privileges of freedom of debate, 
exemption from arrest, and protection for their 
estates," all of which were " granted and allowed 
to them upon their petition" by the King's sub- 

i See Report of Committee of ican Archives, (4th series,) vol. II, 
House of Burgesses on the causes pp. 1209-1215. 
of the late Disturbances, in Amer- 



DUNMORE'S FLIGHT FROM THE PALACE. 99 

stitute and representative. As this was the last 
rehearsal of mimic royalty on the theatre of 
Virginia, these few particulars of the scene may 
be worth a passing commemoration. A resolu- 
tion was then adopted, by which, with great dig- 
nity, the House assured his lordship that they 
would take into their most serious consideration 
the important matters contained in the speech, 
and " proceed with that coolness and deliberation 
which ought to influence the counsels of a free 
and loyal people." 

Hardly was this exchange of ceremonious re- 
spects concluded, when an incident occurred 
which produced a sudden and entire change in 
the face of affairs. Two or three young men 
of the town, who had entered the magazine to 
furnish themselves with arms, were grievously 
wounded by the explosion of a spring-gun, which 
had been secretly contrived, by the orders of 
Lord Dunmore, to take vengeance of such a 
trespass, if it should be attempted. So vindic- 
tive and treacherous a proceeding, in the midst 
of smiling overtures of peace and conciliation, 
naturally excited a lively feeling of indignation ; 
but there was no act, or even demonstration, of 
violence by any portion of the people. The 
guilty conscience of the governor, however, con- 
jured up ideal clangers to himself and to his 
family ; and on the night of the 8th instant, he 
secretly withdrew from the palace in Williams- 
burg, and placed himself on board his Majesty's 



100 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ship of war, the Fowey, riding at anchor in York 
River. From this floating and frowning citadel 
he proposed thenceforward to conduct his inter- 
course with the Assembly. This was submitted 
to for awhile, under repeated protests and re 
monstrances from the Assembly; but when at 
length the rejection of the ministerial plan of 
conciliation, in a series of well reasoned and elo- 
quent resolutions from the pen of Mr. Jefferson, 
put an end to all show of respect on the part 
of the governor, the breach between him and 
the representatives of the people daily became 
wider and more embittered. 

To an address from the House of Burgesses, — 
justifying one of their measures from certain 
captious objections taken to it by the governor, 
and entreating him to meet them on the follow- 
ing day at the capitol in Williamsburg, for the 
purpose of giving his assent to such of the bills 
and resolves passed by them as he should ap- 
prove, — he curtly replied by reiterating his objec- 
tions to the obnoxious measure, refusing to meet 
them at the capitol, and informing them that he 
would receive them the following day, " at twelve 
of the clock at his present residence," on board 
his Majesty's ship of war, the Fowey. The House 
immediately resolved itself into a committee of 
the whole House to take into consideration the 
state of the Colony and the governor's answer ; 
and, by an unanimous vote, declared " his lord- 
ship's message, requiring them to attend him on 



another convention meets. 101 

board one of his Majesty's ships of war, to be a 
high breach of the rights and privileges of the 
House." Protesting their unshaken loyalty to 
the King, and. the determination " to the utmost 
of their power and at the risk of their lives and 
property to maintain and defend his government 
in this Colony, as founded on the established 
laws and principles of the constitution," they 
affirm that the proceedings of the governor 
" give them great reason to fear that a danger- 
ous attack may be meditated against the un- 
happy people of this Colony," whom they there- 
fore advise " to prepare for the preservation of 
their property and their inestimable rights arid 
liberties with the greatest care and attention." 

In stern and ominous silence they then ad- 
journed to the 12th day of October next. But 
when that day arrived, the Colony was placed 
in flagrant war with its oppressors ; and the 
proceedings of the 24th of June, 1775, proved 
to be the last scene of the last act of the "House 
of Burgesses" in Virginia, — an honorable and 
dignified close of its existence, in keeping with 
many glorious antecedents. 

A convention of delegates, chosen By the peo- 
ple under the recommendation of the preceding 
convention, soon took the place of the regular 
and yet legal representative body. They assem- 
bled in Richmond on the 17th day of July, 1775, 
and immediately adopted measures for the de- 
fence and protection of the Colony. Two regi- 

9 * 



102 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

merits of regular troops were ordered to be 
raised for immediate service, and sixteen battal- 
ions of minute-men to be organized, and trained 
and exercised periodically within their respective 
districts, to be ready, at a minute's warning, to 
unite with the regular force in case of need. In 
addition to these provisions for the general de- 
fence of the Colony, half-a-dozen detached com- 
panies were to be raised and stationed at Pitts- 
burg, Wheeling, and other designated points for 
the protection of the western frontiers. Mr. 
Henry, then one of the delegates to the Conti- 
nental Congress, but who returned to Virginia 
about this time, was appointed colonel of the 
first regiment, and, as such, commander-in-chief 
of all the colonial forces. This honor, however, 
was not conferred on him without a close con- 
test with a gentleman of high civil and military 
merit, Hugh Mercer, who upon the first ballot 
obtained one vote more than Mr. Henry. 1 

1 This military appointment con- opinion of many, one of those hasty 
ferred on Mr. Henry appears to measm-es into which the efferves- 
have been the occasion of a good cenceof gratitude not un frequently 
deal of dissatisfaction and criticism betrays even public bodies. From 
at the time. Girardin, who, in the national councils, where his 
writing his continuation of Burk, usefulness was preeminently con- 
had tin- advantage of daily and spicuous, that gentleman was called 
unreserved personal communica- to an important military station, 
tions with Mr. Jefferson, as well with the duties of which he must, 
as free access to all his papers, in the nature of things, have been 
(see Jefferson's Writings, vol. i. mostly unacquainted ; whilst, by 
p. 41, and vol. IV. p. 251,) says: — an unhappy reaction, the country 

" The elevation of Patrick Hen- lost the services of some, able offi- 

ry to the chief command of the cers, whom the pride of former 

regular colonial forces was, in the rank would not suffer to act under 



PROCEEDINGS OF CONVENTION. 103 

In concurrence with these measures, a com- 
mittee of safety was appointed, consisting of 
eleven of the most experienced and honored 
members of the convention, 1 to whom large dis- 
cretionary powers were given in the direction 
of the military force, and, in general, for all 
those executive functions of government which 
were now considered in abeyance, at least, by the 
hostile attitude of the royal governor. The con- 
vention closed a session of earnest and efficient 
practical labors for the care of the public liberty 
and safety, by the promulgation of a document, 
simple and unadorned as it was truthful, " setting 
forth the cause of their meeting, and the neces- 
sity of immediately putting the country into a 
posture of defence for the better protection of 
their lives, liberties, and properties." After glanc- 
ing, in general terms, at the long course of 
ministerial despotism which had been exercised 
over the Colonies, and a review, more in detail, 

him, — a loss peculiarly to be la- Ludwell Lee, Paul Carrington, 

mented in the infancy of an ardu- Dudley Digges, William Cabell, 

ous struggle, and at a time when Carter Braxton, James Mercer, 

Virginia counted only a few mili- and John Tabb. In the election 

tary characters possessed of the of the committee of safety, at the 

qualifications necessary for dis- succeeding convention in Decem- 

charofmg their duty with honor to ber, 1775, in the place of George 

themselves and security to the com- Mason, who retired on account of 

mon cause." Burk's History of infirm health, and of Carter Brax- 

Virginia, vol. IV. p. 103. ton, just elected delegate to the 

1 The members who received Continental Congress, were chosen 

this high proof of the confidence Joseph Jones and Thomas Walk- 

of the convention were Edmund er ; and the other members were 

Pendleton, George Mason, John all reappointed. 
Page, Richard Bland, Thomas 



104 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of the odious malversation of the governor, and 
stating the necessity which was thus imposed 
upon them of adopting measures of self-protec- 
tion and defence, they conclude with the follow 
ing earnest protestation : — 

" But lest our views and designs should be 
misrepresented or misunderstood, we again, and 
for all, publicly and solemnly declare before God 
and the world that we do bear faith and true 
allegiance to His Majesty, King George the 
Third, our only lawful and rightful sovereign ; 
that we will, so long as it may be in . our 
power, defend him and his government, as 
founded on the laws and well known principles 
of the constitution ; that we will, to the utmost 
of our power, preserve peace and good order 
throughout the country, and endeavour, by ev- 
ery honorable means, to promote a restoration 
of that friendship and amity, which so long and 
happily subsisted between our fellow-subjects in 
Great Britain and the inhabitants of America ; 
that as, on the one hand, we are determined to 
defend our lives and properties, and maintain 
our just rights and privileges at every, even the 
extremest, hazard, so, on the other, it is our 
fixed and unalterable resolution to disband such 
forces as may be raised in this Colony, when- 
ever our dangers are removed, and America is 
restored to that former state of tranquillity and 
happiness, the interruption of which is so much de- 
plored by us and every friend to either country." 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECOND CONGRESS. 105 

While these events were passing in Virginia, 
the second Continental Congress had assembled 
in Philadelphia. Coming together after the fatal 
effusion of blood at Concord and Lexington, they 
entered at once upon the consideration of the 
measures which the commencement of hostilities 
by the commander-in-chief of the royal, or, as 
they were yet called, ministerial troops, rendered 
indispensably necessary. On the 26th of May, 
1775, they unanimously adopted a resolution, 
that " for the express purpose of securing and 
defending the Colonies, and preserving them in 
safety against all attempts to carry the oppres- 
sive and unconstitutional acts of Parliament into 
execution by force of arms, these Colonies be 
immediately put into a state of defence." At the 
same time, declaring that a they most ardently 
wish for a restoration of the harmony formerly 
subsisting between our mother country and these 
Colonies, the interruption of which must, at all 
events, be exceedingly injurious to both coun- 
tries," they resolved, that, "with a view to the 
promotion of so desirable a reconciliation by all 
the means not incompatible with a just regard 
for the undoubted rights and true interests of 
the Colonies, a humble and dutiful petition be 
presented to His Majesty," and that a "negotia- 
tion for accommodating the unhappy disputes 
which had arisen be made a part of the said 
petition." 

It is known that the suggestion of a second 



10G LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

petition to the King was exceedingly distasteful 
to many of the patriots of the day, but from 
a spirit of deference and conciliation towards 
those who desired it, it was not opposed ; and a 
most respectable contemporary authority ! has ex- 
pressed the opinion that its effect in the end, when 
it came to be known that it had been treated with 
silent disregard by the Throne and ungraciously 
rejected by Parliament, was to rally all shades 
of patriotic sentiment in America to a firmer and 
more united support of the national cause. 

On the 15th of June, Congress resolved that 
" a general be appointed to command all the 
continental forces raised and to be raised for 
the defence of American liberty," and proceeded 
at once to the eventful choice. Who that Gen- 
eral was the world knows, and to the latest 
ages will remember. They, then, by successive 
resolutions determined upon the number and de- 
scription of the troops to be raised, appointed 
four major-generals, eight brigadiers, and an ad- 
jutant general, to act under the orders of the 
commander-in-chief, and voted, for the support 
of the army, three millions of dollars in bills of 
credit, for the redemption of which the faith of 
the confederated Colonies was solemnly pledged. 

Among the most important of the papers 
which this august body, after the example of its 
predecessor, thought fit to put forth, was " a 
declaration by the representatives of the United 

1 See Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, vol. i. p. 273. 






DECLARATION ISSUED BY CONGRESS. 107 

Colonies of North America, now met in Congress 
at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and ne- 
cessity of their taking up arms." This noble 
paper was the joint production of Mr. Dickinson 
and Mr. Jefferson ; but being debated paragraph 
by paragraph, and carefully considered by Con- 
gress before its adoption, it must be regarded 
as speaking the genuine and most deliberate 
sense of that body. 

After declaring that " the arms we have been 
compelled by our enemies to assume we will, 
in defiance of every hazard, with unabating 
firmness and perseverance, employ for the pres- 
ervation of our liberties, being with one mind 
resolved to die freemen rather than live slaves," 
they proceed to say, "we mean not to dis- 
solve that union which has so long and so 
happily subsisted between us, and which we sin- 
cerely wish to see restored ; . . . . we have not 
raised armies with ambitious designs of sep- 
arating from Great Britain and establishing inde- 
pendent States In our own native land, in 

defence of the freedom that is our birthright, 
and which we ever enjoyed till the late viola- 
tion of it, for the protection of our property, 
acquired solely by the honest industry of our 
forefathers and ourselves, against violence ac- 
tually offered, we have taken up arms We 

shall lay them clown, when hostilities shall cease 
on the part of our aggressors and all danger of 
their being renewed shall be removed, and not 



108 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

before." They conclude with an appeal to the 
Supreme Ruler of the Universe " to protect us 
happily through this great conflict, to dispose 
our adversaries to reconciliation 'on reasonable 
terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from 
the calamities of civil war." 

These expressions of a sincere desire of recon- 
ciliation with the mother country, while arming 
in defence of their rights, — which marked the 
proceedings of all the other Colonies, as well as 
of Virginia and of their common representative, 
the Continental Congress, — were treated in Eng- 
land as hypocritical and treacherous. The King 
himself, in the speech at the opening of Parlia- 
ment on the 26th of October, 1775, went so far 
as to say that " the Americans meant only to 
amuse by vague expressions of attachment to 
the parent state, and the strongest protestations 
of loyalty to me, whilst they were preparing for 
a general revolt;" and that "the rebellious war 
now levied is manifestly carried on for the pur- 
pose of establishing an independent empire." 
Not a few of the ablest political writers in Eng- 
land l charged the Colonies with harbouring the 
design of independence, even before the present 
dispute ; and it has been quite common for 
European historians of the American Revolution, 
who are not unfriendly to the cause of the 
Colonies, viewing the subject through the me- 
dium of diplomatic usages and traditions familiar 

1 Such as Chalmers, Dr. Johnson, and Soame Jenyns. 



INDEPENDENCE DISCLAIMED. 109 

to the old world, to consider the earnest pro- 
fessions of a desire for a reconciliation with the 
mother country on terms consistent with their 
constitutional rights, which were so emphatically 
made at this time, both by the general Congress 
and the several colonial assemblies, as nothing 
more than the trite, conventional language of 
diplomacy. 1 

Such a representation does injustice alike to 
the original spirit and object of this great move- 
ment, to the sincerity of both leaders and people, 
and to contemporary evidence of the highest 
character. General Washington, writing to his 
friend M'Kenzie, from the midst of the counsels 
and deliberations of the first Congress which met 
at Philadelphia in September, 1774, and of which 
he was silently the ruling spirit, says : " I am 
well satisfied that no such thing as independence 
is desired by any thinking man in North Amer- 
ica ; on the contrary, it is the ardent wish of 
the warmest advocates for Liberty that peace 
and tranquillity, on constitutional grounds, may 
be restored, and the horrors of civil war pre- 
vented." 

Mr. Jefferson, who was a member both of the 
Virginia convention of 1775, and of the second 
Continental Congress, the proceedings of each of 
which bodies we have given above, in writing 
to his friend John Randolph, immediately after 
their adjournment, uses a language which de- 

1 Both Botta and Grahame adopt this interpretation. 
VOL. I. 10 



110 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

serves so much the more consideration with 
reference to this question, as being that of a 
lender who,- by the course of events, finally be- 
came one of the earliest and most zealous cham- 
pions of independence. " I hope," he says, " the 
returning wisdom of Great Britain will ere lona: 
put an end to this unnatural contest, There 
may be people to whose tempers and disposi- 
tions contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, 
wish a continuance of confusion ; but to me it 
is, of all other, states but one, the most horrid. 
My first wish is a restoration of our just rights; 
my second, a return of the happy period when, 
consistently with duty, I may withdraw myself 
totally from the public stage, and pass the rest 
of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, 
banishing every desire of ever hearing what 
passes in the world. Perhaps, (for the latter 
adds considerably to the warmth of the former 
wish,) looking with fondness towards a reconcil- 
iation with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping 
you may be able to contribute towards expedit- 
ing this good work." 

This was the language, in a confidential cor- 
respondence excluding every possible motive for 
dissimulation, of a jealous and ardent friend of 
liberty, the author of the "Summary View of 
the Rights of British America," soon to become 
the immortal penman of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence itself, who had just left the delibera- 
tions of the two assemblies which, in arming: for 



TESTIMONY OF MR. MADISON. HI 

the defence of their rights, still invoked the re- 
turn of peace and union upon those constitu- 
tional grounds which could alone insure a lasting 
or useful harmony. 

It would be easy to multiply proofs of the 
same character, even to redundancy. Instead of 
that, we prefer to give the deliberate and well 
considered opinion of one who was a most intel- 
ligent and deeply interested observer of the 
events of the times, though then too young to 
take an active lead in them, and who, appealed 
to, in the retirement which closed his long ca- 
reer, for his judgment on this disputed point of 
our history, gave the following answer, reject- 
ing, with the lights of truth, the characteristic 
modesty and dignity of the writer. 

" My first entrance on public life," says Mr. 
Madison, in replying to his distinguished querist, 1 
"was in May, 1776, when I became a member 
of the convention in Virginia which instructed 
her delegates in Congress to propose the Decla- 
ration of Independence. Previous to that date, I 
was not in sufficient communication with any 
under the denomination of leaders to learn their 
sentiments or views on that cardinal subject. 

"I can only say, therefore, that so far as ever 
came to my knowledge, no one of them ever 
avowed, or was understood to entertain, a pur- 
suit of independence, at the assembling of the 
first Congress or for a considerable period there- 

1 Letter to Mr. Jared Sparks, 5th of January, 1828. 



112 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

after. It has always been my impression that a 
reestablishment of the colonial relations to the 
parent country, as they were previous to the 
controversy, was the real object of every class 
of the people, till despair of obtaining it, and 
the exasperating effects of the war and the man- 
ner of conducting it, prepared the minds of all 
for the event declared on the 4th of July, 1776, 
as preferable, with all its difficulties and perils, 
to the alternative of submission to a claim of 
power at once external, unlimited, irresponsible, 
and under every temptation to abuse from inter- 
est, ambition, and revenge. If there were indi- 
viduals who aimed at independence, their views 
must have been confined to their own bosoms, 
or to a very confidential circle." 

The difficulty which English and other foreign 
writers have had in giving faith to the language 
of the American Colonies and their representa- 
tive assemblies at this time, seems to have arisen 
from some notion of an inherent incompatibility 
of the attitude of armed resistance with the pres- 
ervation of existing political ties. But is such 
a state of things any novelty in the annals of 
English freedom? Did not the barons at Run- 
nymede, with arms in their hands, and their 
military retainers encamped around them, ob- 
tain the great charter of English liberty with- 
out a dissolution of the government, or a tempo- 
rary renunciation, even, of their allegiance to 
the sovereign from whom it was demanded and 



AMERICAN SINCERITY VINDICATED. 113 

received ? Was it not an express stipulation in 
that same charter that, if any of its articles 
should be thereafter violated by the King, the 
barons should have the right to levy war against 
him, until full satisfaction be made ? 

So frequent and familiar indeed are such ex- 
amples in the early struggles of our British an- 
cestors, that their great constitutional lawyer. 
John Selden, when asked by what law he justi- 
fied the right of resistance, replied, " By the 
custom of England, which is part of the common 
law." What was the Revolution of 1688, from 
which Englishmen proudly date the final and 
triumphant establishment of the national free- 
dom, but an armed movement of the nation in 
vindication of their constitutional rights, without 
any subversion of existing institutions, and fol- 
lowed by a solemn compact with the sovereign 
pledging him to the maintenance and security 
of those institutions, as recognized and estab- 
lished ? 

There was no want, then, either of logical con- 
sistency, or of honest sincerity, in the ends and 
aims professed by the American Colonies in the 
first stage of the contest on which they had en- 
tered. The full enjoyment of constitutional free- 
dom and the redress of wrongs were the objects 
for which they took up arms. But when, in the 
progress of the struggle, it became apparent that 
these objects were not to be obtained, and that 

unconditional submission to the authority claimed 

10* 



114 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

by the mother country was the sole and degrad- 
ing condition of peace, a higher and more un- 
compromising object emerged to view ; and by 
degrees, all minds were prepared for the bold 
and grand alternative of independence. 

The measures adopted by the British Parlia- 
ment, at its first session after the proceedings of 
the Continental Congress already noticed, con- 
tributed decisively to the change of public feeling 
in America. The petition to the King, to which 
no answer had been given by ministers, was laid 
before Parliament, where it was rejected by an 
overwhelming majority ; and in the debate to 
which it gave rise in the House of Lords, Lord 
Dartmouth, late Secretary of State for the Colo- 
nies, in excusing himself for returning no answer 
to the petition, said that "although the terms 
of it were unexceptionable, there was every rea- 
son to believe that the softness of its language 
was intended to conceal the most traitorous de- 
signs." 

The Prime Minister soon introduced and car- 
ried a bill, under the title of a a Bill to prohibit 
all Trade and Intercourse with the Colonies dur- 
ing the present Rebellion," which authorized the 
indiscriminate capture, either in port or on the 
high seas, of all American vessels ; forfeited both 
vessel and cargo to the captors ; and directed that 
the crews and all persons found on board the 
captured vessels should be at once entered upon 
his Majesty's ships of war, and be there com- 



TONE OF OPPOSITION IN ENGLAND. 115 

polled to serve, as if they had been regularly 
enlisted seamen, against their brethren in Amer- 
ica, A virtual declaration of war, with aggrava- 
tions unknown to the law of nations in case of 
foreign war, — this measure was accompanied with 
the actual preparation of large armaments, both 
naval and military, and the engagement of for- 
eign mercenary troops, for the avowed reason of 
excluding the operation of those sympathies and 
scruples which might arise between fellow-sub- 
jects in such a contest. 

It is impossible for an American, or even an 
Englishman, who reads at this day the proceed- 
ings of that memorable session of Parliament 
which so madly forced on the issue of inde- 
pendence, not to render the homage of his ad- 
miration to the Roman firmness of that small 
band in either House, which stood up against the 
headlong torrent of ministerial and national de- 
lusion, and sustained the cause of constitutional 
liberty and the Colonies, under the almost cer- 
tain penalty of being denounced as sympathizers 
with treason and rebellion, if not traitors and 
rebels themselves. 1 Such was the glorious and 

1 When the bill for " prohibit- which, both in its principle and its 

ing trade and intercourse with the provisions, was fraught with all 

Colonies during their present re- manner of injustice and cruelty ; 

bellion " came up to the House and added, " I do not think the 

of Lords, it was met there, as it people of America in rebellion, but 

had been in the other House, in a resisting acts of the most unex- 

spirit of bold and undaunted op- ampled cruelty and oppression." 

position. The Duke of Richmond Here he was loudly called to or- 

pronounced it to be a measure der ; and one of the ministerial 



116 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

never to be forgotten part acted by the Duke 
of Richmond, the Marquis of Rockingham, the 
Bishop of Peterborough, the Dukes of Manches- 
ter, Cumberland, and Grafton in the House of 
Lords, and by General Conway, Lord John Cav- 
endish, Colonel Barre, Mr. Hartley, Mr. Fox, and 
Mr. Burke in the House of Commons. 

While these vindictive measures of the British 
ministry and Parliament were producing their 
natural effect on the sensibilities and reflections 
of the people of all the Colonies, there were 
peculiar causes in operation in Virginia which 
were rapidly preparing a thorough revulsion in 
the sentiments of loyal attachment to the mother 
country, for which she had been once so distin- 
guished. The royal governor, Dunmore, giving 
way to the resentments which his recent contro- 

lords, Denbigh, undertook to rep- warm terms the heroism and mag- 

rimand him by declaring that those nanimity of Montgomery, Lord 

" who defend rebellion are them- North censured them for bestow- 

selves little better than rebels, and ing such unqualified praises on one 

that there is but little difference who was a rebel ; when Mr. Fox 

between the traitor, and him who rose, and with a noble manliness 

openly or privately abets treason." and elevation of spirit, said, " The 

The Duke disdainfully replied by term rebel applied by the noble 

telling his lordship that " he was lord to that excellent person was 

not to be deterred by loud words no certain mark of disgrace, and 

from the performance of his duty, therefore he was the less earnest 

and that he neither modified nor to clear him of the imputation ; for 

retracted anything he had said." that all the great asserters of lib- 

On another occasion during this erty, the saviours of their country, 

same eventful session of Parlia- the benefactors of mankind in all 

ment, several of the opposition ages, had been called rebels ; that 

members of the House of Com- they even owed the constitution 

mons, Col. Barre and Mr. Burke which enabled them to sit in that 

particularly, having eulogized in house to a rebellion." 



LORD DUNMORE'S PROCEEDINGS. 117 

versy with the legislative authority of the Colony 
had kindled in his bosom, now organized, with 
the vessels of war that were under his control, 
a most disgraceful system of piratical warfare 
against those whom it was his duty to conciliate 
and protect. Collecting, on board his buccaneer- 
ing fleet, a few deluded followers, and as many 
African slaves as he could seduce from their 
masters by promises of freedom, he ravaged the 
shores of the rivers which were open to him, 
plundered the property and burnt the dwellings 
of the inhabitants, and at length attempted the 
destruction of their towns. Repulsed at Hamp- 
ton by a greatly inferior but gallant force assem- 
bled in haste for its defence, he ventured to land 
his motley array, reinforced with some compa- 
nies of regulars, to meet the provincial troops 
at King's Bridge, where he was again defeated; 
and then took an ignominious revenge by lay- 
ing the chief seaport of the Colony, Norfolk, in 
ashes. 

In the prosecution of these barbarous and dis- 
graceful hostilities, he had issued, on the 7th of 
November, 1775, a proclamation calling upon all 
persons capable of bearing arms " to repair to 
his standard, or be looked upon as traitors to 
His Majesty's crown and government," and de- 
claring free all negroes, who shall join him "for 
the more speedily reducing this Colony to a 
proper sense of their duty to His Majesty's 
2rown and dignity." An outrage of so deep a 



118 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

dye as this, could admit of no aggravation from 
the superaddition of any other official iniquity : 
but it so happened that discoveries, just then 
made, proved that this infamous viceroy, while 
inviting the fellowship and cooperation of slaves 
as allies in a war of extermination against their 
masters, was at the same time, through his con- 
genial instrument, Connolly, preparing to bring 
down the merciless savages of the forest, not 
only upon the western frontiers, but into the 
very heart, of the Colony. 1 Such were the mul- 
tiplied enormities of this chosen representative 
of royalty in America, that Washington, in a 
letter of the 26th of December, 1775, to Richard 
Henry Lee, 2 speaking of the "diabolical schemes" 
of Dunmore, says that " nothing less than de- 
priving him of life or liberty will secure peace 



l A letter of the Earl of Dart- should be able to collect from 
mouth to Lord Dunmore, dated among the Indians, negroes, and 
the 2d of August, 1774, contains other persons, a force sufficient, if 
the following significant passage, not to subdue rebellion, at least to 
which shows that this unscrupulous defend government, was very en- 
and vindictive agent of ministerial couraging; but I find by your let- 
tyranny relied upon the employ- ters delivered to ine by Lieutenant 
ment of Indians and negroes as a Collins, that you have been obliged, 
regular means of sustaining the from the violence of the times, men- 
authority of his government, even aced by one branch of the legisla- 
befoie the occurrence of any open ture and abandoned by the other, 
rupture with the inhabitants of the to yield up all the powers of gov- 
Colony. ernment and retire yourself on 

" The hope," says the approving board the Fowey." See Amer- 

minister to the guilty governor, ican Archives, (4th series,) vol. ill. 

" you held out to us in your letter p. 6. 

of the 1st of May, that, with a sup- a American Archives, (4th se- 

ply of arms and ammunition, you ries,) vol. iv. p. 465. 



NEW CONVENTION AT WILLIAMSBURG. 119 

to Virginia; as motives of resentment actuate his 
conduct, to a degree equal to the total destruc- 
tion of the Colony." 

Under the influence of these various and pow- 
erful causes of alienation from the mother coun- 
try, the public mind of America began to 
advance rapidly, though with unequal steps in 
both individuals and communities, to the stern 
and magnanimous resolve of final separation. 
The question of independence was now freely 
canvassed, not only in the consultations of pa- 
triots and in the conversations of friends and 
neighbours, but openly through the public press. 
In this state of things, in the month of April, 
1776, delegates were elected by the several coun- 
ties of Virginia to a new convention, which as- 
sembled in Williamsburg, on the 6th day of the 
following month. Of this body, destined to take 
so important a lead on the great question which 
then occupied the minds and hearts of all Amer- 
ica, Mr. Madison, at the age of twenty-five years, 
was chosen a member for his native county of 
Orange. 



CHAPTER V. 

Proceedings of the Virginia Convention of 1776 — Instructions to 
their Delegates in Congress to propose Declaration of Indepen- 
dence — Authorship of the Instructions — Select Committee to pre- 
pare a Declaration of Rights and Plan of Government — Mr. 
Madison a Member of the Committee — George Mason Author of 
Original Draft of Declaration of Rights — Amended in its last 
Article on Motion of Mr. Madison — Difference between Religious 
Toleration and Religious Freedom — Deliberations of Select Com- 
mittee on Plan of Government — Mr. John Adams suggests one — 
Another proposed by Mr. Braxton, Delegate in Congress from 
Virginia — Letter of Patrick Henry on the Subject— Plan pre- 
sented by a Member of the Select Committee — Resemblance 
between it and Constitution finally adopted— Principal Features 
of the Virginia Constitution of 1776 — Republican Government as 
understood by the wise and patriotic Men who framed that Con- 
stitution — Distinction between a Republic and a Democracy — 
Question as to the Authorship of the Original Plan submitted to the 
Select Committee — Letter and Memorandum of Mr. Madison on 
the Subject — Distinguished Lead of George Mason — Patrick 
Henry elected first Republican Governor — His Testimony in 
Favor of the Constitution of 1776 — Adjournment of the Conven- 
tion. 

When it became manifest that the last and 
only security for the rights of America was in 
the valor of her sons, and the Colonies were all 
arming: for the contest, Mr. Madison kindled with 



MR. MADISON'S W,SI1 TO JOIN THE ARMY. 121 

the military ardor of his countrymen, and ear- 
nestly desired to join the army. A very large 
proportion of those who had been his intimate 
friends and associates at Princeton, where we 
have seen the spirit of patriotic resistance to 
the encroachments of the mother country run 
so high, had obtained commissions in the army ; J 
and one of his brothers, Ambrose, four years 
younger than himself, had likewise clone so. 
These circumstances, together with the lofty and 
indignant sense of the wrongs of his country 
which fired his own bosom, strongly disposed 
him to the military career. The continued fee- 
bleness of his health and constitution, in depriv- 
ing him of the physical strength necessary for 
the services of the field, alone prevented the 
indulgence of the decided bent of his feelings. 
As a member of the committee of his county, 
however, he had shown too much zeal for the 
cause of American liberty, with high power, 
moral and intellectual, to defend and promote 
its interests, not to have attracted the notice of 
his fellow-citizens ; and by their spontaneous voice, 

1 In an oration of the Hon. W. alumni, on the early destinies of 

C. Alexander, (24th of August, America, the same authority states 

1857,) "On the Influence of that nearly one fifth of the signers 

Princeton College on the Liberty, of the Declaration of Independ- 

Independence, and Greatness of ence, and an equal proportion of 

the United States," it is stated that the members of the convention 

four fifths of her alumni passed which formed the constitution of 

from her walls into the revolution- the United States, and of the first 

ary army. As a further illustra- Congress under it, were also grad- 

tion of the wide influence of that uates of Princeton College, 
ancient institution, through her 
VOL. I. 11 



122 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

he was summoned from his studious retirement 
to represent them in the convention of 1776. 

lie was probably, with one or two exceptions, 
the youngest member of that body. It was an 
assembly of the conscript fathers of the Colony, 
called together by a crisis of the most moment- 
ous character to take counsel for the public 
liberty and safety. Richard Bland, the Lees, 
(Thomas Ludwell, and Richard Henry,) George 
Mason, Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, Rob- 
ert Carter Nicholas, George Wythe, Archibald 
Cary, and others, whose names had been long 
familiar, and were now consecrated in the gen- 
eral confidence and affection, as leaders and 
oracles of public opinion, were there to lend the 
aid of their ripened wisdom and experience. 
Mr. Pendleton was chosen to preside over their 
deliberations ; and, in taking the chair, he re- 
minded the convention, in terms of impressive 
gravity and dignity, that they were met " at a 
time truly critical ; . . . when almost all the pow- 
ers of government have been suspended for near 
two years; . . . and it will become us to reflect 
whether w r e can longer sustain the great strug- 
gle we are making, in this situation." 

These pregnant words plainly pointed to the 
necessity of organizing a new and independent 
government, and of finally severing the ties 
which had hitherto (for the last two years, in 
form only,) bound the Colony to the mother 
country. On the following day, (8th of May,) 



VIRGINIA FOR INDEPENDENCE. 123 

it was ordered that the convention would, on the 
10th instant, resolve itself into a committee of 
the whole house to take into their consideration 
the state of the Colony. This order was put off 
from day to day until the 14th instant, when it 
was executed ; and Mr. Archibald Cary, chairman 
of the committee of the whole house, reported 
that, " having had the state of the Colony under 
their consideration, but not having time to go 
through the same, the committee directed him 
to move for leave to sit again." On the suc- 
ceeding day, the 15th of May, 1776, the conven- 
tion again resolved itself into a committee of the 
whole on the state of the Colony ; and after 
some time spent therein, the president resumed 
the chair, and Mr. Cary reported that the com- 
mittee of the whole had come to certain resolu- 
tions, " which he read in his place, and then 
delivered in at the clerk's table, where the same 
were again twice read, and unanimously agreed 
to, one hundred and twelve members being pres- 
ent." 1 

These resolutions recapitulate, in a brief and 
vigorous summary, the wrongs experienced from 
the King and Parliament of Great Britain, espec- 
ially the last crowning outrage, by which the 
Colonies are declared to be out of the protec- 
tion of the parent state, their properties sub- 
jected to confiscation, their people, when " cap- 
tivated," compelled to join in the murder and 

1 Journal of the Convention, p. 15. 



124 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

plunder of their relations and countrymen, fleets 
and armies raised, and the aid of foreign troops 
engaged to assist these destructive purposes ; 
and then passing to the proceedings of the 
King's representative in the Colony, which they 
characterize as " a piratical and savage warfare," 
they declare that no alternative is left but "ab- 
ject submission to the will of these overbear- 
ing tyrants, or a total separation from the crown 
and government of Great Britain, uniting and 
exerting the strength of all America for defence, 
and forming alliances with foreign powers for 
commerce and aid in war." They conclude with 
solemnly instructing the delegates of Virginia in 
the general Congress, "to propose to that body 
to declare the united Colonies free and indepen- 
dent States, absolved from all allegiance to or 
dependence on the crown or Parliament of Great 
Britain, and that they give the assent of this 
Colony to such Declaration, and to whatever 
measures may be thought proper and necessary 
by the Congress for forming foreign alliances, 
and a confederation of the Colonies." 

This was the first decided movement of a 
competent authority, in any of the Colonies, in 
favor of independence. The Provincial Congress 
of North Carolina had, it is true, on the 12th 
day of the preceding month, passed resolutions 
which " empowered their delegates in Congress 
to concur with the delegates of the other Colo- 
nies in declaring independence and forming for- 



MOTION OF VIRGINIA DELEGATES. 125 

eign alliances." But, however meritorious and 
patriotic those resolutions were, they simply gave 
to the North Carolina delegates the power, if 
they thought proper to exercise it, to concur in a 
measure which might or might not be brought 
forward by others ; while the resolutions of Vir- 
ginia imposed upon her representatives the obli- 
gation to propose that measure unconditionally, 
and to take, in her name, all the responsibility 
of a courageous and unhesitating lead. 

Accordingly her delegates, in pursuance of 
their instructions, brought forward in Congress. 
on the 7 th day of June, a resolution declaring 
that "these united Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent States ; that 
they are absolved from all allegiance to the 
British crown, and that all political connection 
between them and the state of Great Britain is 
and ought to be totally dissolved." This resolu- 
tion was earnestly debated on the 8th and 10th, 
of June ; on the last of which days, without 
coming to a final decision upon it, a select com- 
mittee was appointed to " prepare a declaration 
to the effect of the said resolution." As it had 
encountered a good deal of opposition in quarters 
where it was hoped the delay of a few weeks 
would produce a more favorable sentiment tow- 
ards it, its farther consideration was postponed 
to the 1st of July. 

On that and the following day, the debate 

upon it was renewed. The resolution, as pro- 

n* 



12G LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

posed by the delegates of Virginia in pursuance 
of their instructions, was then finally adopted by 
the House ; and two days later the declaration, 
pre] tared in conformity to the resolution, pro- 
claiming in fit and noble language the birth of 
a great republican empire in America, springing 
from the tyranny and oppression of its European 
parent, received in the bosom of Congress its last 
sanction by the individual and responsible signar 
tures of the delegates of the several Colonies. 1 

The great act of national independence as pro- 
claimed by the Congress of the United Colonies, 
— an event of which the immeasurable influence 
upon the destinies of the human family is every- 
where acknowledged, — being thus connected in 
an unbroken line with the instructions of the 
Virginia convention of 1776 to their delegates 
iii Congress, every circumstance relating to the 
origin and history of those instructions becomes 
matter of rational and patriotic interest. Though 
they were entered upon the journal of the con- 
vention as unanimously adopted, one hundred 
and twelve members being present, there is rea- 
son to believe that they did not pass with the 
entire concurrence of all the members. This, 
besides being the natural inference from the cir- 
cumstance of their being under the consideration 
of the committee of the whole for two days, is 

1 For a full account of the pro- Congress, vol. I. pp. 368, 369, and 
ceedings in Congress relative to 392-396, and Jefferson's Writings, 
independence, see Journal of Old vol. I. pp. 10-16, and 96-100. 



CONVENTION NOT UNANIMOUS. 



127 



positively affirmed in the contemporary corre- 
spondence of a distinguished member. 1 That 
there were shades of difference in the con- 
vention among those friendly to independence, 
as to the mode of giving effect to it, appears 
from a letter of Major-General Lee, who, being 
at Williamsburg in the exercise of his mili- 
tary command, during the sitting of the conven- 
tion, wrote to General Washington on the 10th 
of May, "A noble spirit possesses the convention. 
They are almost unanimous for independence, 
but differ in their sentiments about the mode ; 
two days will decide it." 2 



1 Manuscript Letter of George 
Mason to R. H. Lee of the 18th 
of May, 1776, wherein he says, 
" the opponents being so few that 
they did not think fit to divide, or 
contradict the general voice." This 
letter is in the archives of the Vir- 
ginia Historical Society. 

2 See American Archives, (4th 
series,) vol. vi. p. 406. A letter 
addressed by General Lee to Pat- 
rick Henry, bearing date only 
three days before the one to Gen- 
eral AVashington cited above, has 
raised a doubt whether Mr. Henry 
was not among those who hesitated 
about the Declaration of Independ- 
ence at this time. In that letter, 
which is a very remarkable one, as 
well for its ability as for the inci- 
dental disclosures made by it, (see 
it at length in American Archives, 
5th series, vol. I. pp. 95-97,) the 
writer combats, with great clear- 
ness and force, certain objections 



which appear to have been urged 
by Mr. Henry, in a conversation 
of the day previous, against an 
immediate Declaration of Inde 
pendence. 

It will be seen, from a statement 
of Mr. Edmund Randolph here- 
after referred to in the text, that 
the instructions of the Virginia 
convention of the 15th of May, in 
favor of a declaration of independ- 
ence by Congress, were actually 
sustained in debate by Mr. Henry ; 
from which the natural inference 
would be that his mind had been 
entirely relieved from the doubts 
he entertained at the time of his 
conversation with General Lee. 
And yet, in a letter written by him 
to Mr. John Adams on the 20th of 
May, five days after the adoption 
of those instructions, he repeats 
and dwells upon the apprehension 
that France might be seduced to 
take sides against the Colonies by 



128 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

By what pen the instructions of the Virginia 
convention were drawn, is a question suggested 
as well by the intrinsic dignity and importance 
of the paper, as by the fact of its being the 
basis of the proceedings of Congress, which ter- 
minated in independence. Like the great Decla- 
ration itself, it has not escaped criticism, though 
in a somewhat different sense. 1 As a grave 
public act, however, without aspiring to the am- 
bitious graces of studied composition, it is char- 
acterized by an appropriate clearness and con- 
densation; a sobriety, yet energy, of statement 
marking firm resolve ; and an unaffected and 
even Doric simplicity of language, which well 
consorts with the inherent grandeur of the 
cause. 

That there was no spirit of self-seeking or 



an offer from England to divide hered to, would have postponed 
the territories of America between the declaration of independence 
them ; — an apprehension that form- near five years. It would almost 
ed the principal subject-matter of seem that Mr. Henry had an idea 
the objections, which appear to of an open declaration of inde- 
have been urged by him, in his pendence as something different 
conversation with General Lee, from what the instructions of the 
against an immediate declaration Virginia convention, which had 
of independence. been sustained by him, absolutely 
In the letter to Mr. Adams, Mr. required her delegates in Congress 
Henry also says, " the confed- to propose. See the letter to Mr. 
eracy " (meaning, as the context Adams in " Works of John Ad- 
proves, the conclusion of articles of ams," vol. iv. pp. 201, 202. 
confederation among the States,) * See Letter of George Mason 
" must precede an open declara- to R. H. Lee, referred to above, 
tion of independence, and foreign and also the letter of Patrick 
alliances ; " — a condition which, as Henry to John Adams, of the 20th 
tilings turned out, if inflexibly ad- of May, 1776. 



AUTHORSHIP OF INSTRUCTIONS. 129 

vanity connected with the production of this 
important paper, is evinced by the circumstance 
of its authorship being unknown to many of the 
members of the convention itself. It appears 
from a letter addressed by Mr. Madison in after- 
life to Mr. Jefferson, with the laudable purpose 
of rescuing from oblivion the part borne by each 
actor in this great scene of our history, that, 
though a member himself of the body from 
which these instructions proceeded, he was left 
wholly to conjecture with regard to their par- 
ticular origin. The following is an extract of 
the letter referred to, dated the 6th of Septem- 
ber, 1823 :— 

" The friends of R H. Lee have shown not 
only injustice in underrating the draught, (of the 
Declaration of Independence,) but much weak- 
ness in overrating the motion in Congress pre- 
ceding it; all the merit of which belongs to the 
convention of Virginia, which gave a positive 
instruction to her deputies to make the motion. 
It was made by him as next in the list to Pey- 
ton Randolph, then deceased. Had Mr. Lee been 
absent, the task would have devolved on you. 
As this measure of Virginia makes a link in the 
history of our national birth, it is but right that 
every circumstance attending it should be ascer- 
tained and preserved. You probably can best 
tell where the instruction had its origin, and by 
whose pen it was prepared. The impression at 
the time was that it was communicated in a 



130 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

letter from yourself to Mr. Wythe, a member 
of the convention." 

To this letter we have not the answer of Mr. 
Jefferson ; but the entire omission of the conject- 
ure it contained in later letters of Mr. Madison, 
referring to the same subject, authorizes the con- 
clusion that it did not receive confirmation from 
the authentic source to which he appealed. 

It seems now to be established by the unques- 
tionable testimony of a contemporary actor that 
Edmund Pendleton, the president of the conven- 
tion, was the draughtsman of this memorable 
act. In a funeral eulogy on the occasion of his 
death in 1803, recently brought to light by the 
researches of a most devoted and able inquirer 
into our State history, the orator, Edmund Ran- 
dolph, who was a member of the convention of 
1776, distinctly affirms that "the resolution which 
passed the convention for declaring independ- 
ence was drawn by Mr. Pendleton, proposed by 
General Nelson, and enforced by Mr. Henry." 1 
The revelation adds new lustre to the fame of 
Pendleton. 

This gentleman, whose patriotism was always 
above suspicion, had, nevertheless, united with 
the steady firmness of his resistance to the arbi- 
trary measures of the mother country, so much 
of the native coolness, deliberation, and prudence 
of his character, that the more ardent spirits of 

1 See the Virginia Gazette of the 2d of November, 1803. To Mr. 
Grigsby belongs the merit of evoking this posthumous testimony. 



EDMUND PENDLETON. 131 

the day were sometimes dissatisfied with, if they 
did not venture openly to reproach, him. The 
offence, too, which, as chairman of the committee 
of safety, in a question of great delicacy, he had 
been so unfortunate as to give to the personal 
friends of Mr. Henry, had arrayed against him, 
at one time, the prejudices and animosity of a 
strong and powerful party. To every ingenuous 
mind, therefore, cherishing with equal loyalty 
and regard the fame of all our illustrious patri- 
ots, it cannot but be matter of sincere gratifica- 
tion to find the name of Pendleton connected, 
in the closest possible relation, with the first 
great and decisive movement in favor of inde- 
pendence ; thus furnishing, for the instruction of 
rulers and people, a new proof that prudence, 
which a great English statesman has pronounced 
"not only the first in rank of virtues, political 
and moral, but the director, the regulator, the 
standard of them all," does not exclude boldness, 
but is often, as the same profound genius has 
said, another name for "courageous wisdom." 1 

On the same day and by the same act by 
which the convention pronounced their eventful 
decision in favor of independence, they resolved 
with like unanimity that "a committee be ap- 
pointed to prepare a Declaration of Rights and 
such a Plan of Government as will be most 
likely to maintain peace and order in this Col- 

1 Burke. Appeal from New to Old Whigs, and Letters on a Regi- 
cide Peace. 



132 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ony, and secure substantial and equal liberty to 
the people." It is a circumstance which ren- 
ders the 15th of May, 1776, yet more mem- 
orable, that the Continental Congress, on that 
day, adopted a preamble and resolution setting 
forth, in language almost identical with that of 
the Virginia convention, that "as the whole 
force of Great Britain, aided by foreign merce- 
naries, is to be exerted for the destruction of 
the good people of these Colonies," it has be- 
come necessary to suppress the exercise of every 
kind of authority under the British crown, and 
that all the powers of government be hencefor- 
ward exerted under the authority of the people 
of the Colonies, for the preservation of peace, 
liberty, and safety ; and recommending to the 
respective assemblies or conventions of the Col- 
onies to proceed at once to the organization of 
such governments. 1 The convention of Virginia, 
guided by the intuitive suggestions of its own 
patriotism and forecast, had already entered upon 
the task, at the very moment Congress was 
advising it, and days before the recommenda- 
tion of the latter could have been known in 
Virginia. 

The committee appointed for the performance 
of this master work consisted originally of twenty- 
eight members, embracing the most eminent and 
well known names of the convention, Archibald 
Cary, Robert Carter Nicholas, Patrick Henry, 

1 See Journals of old Congress, vol. i. pp. 339 and 345. 



COMMITTEE TO FRAME CONSTITUTION. 133 

Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, John Blair, 
Meriwether Smith, James Mercer, and others, 
who, if less known to fame, had nevertheless 
given solid proofs of practical wisdom and capac- 
ity for government. On the day following the 
appointment of the committee, Mr. Madison, who, 
through the veil of his inexperience and mod- 
esty, had just begun to attract the notice of the 
convention, was, on special motion, added to it; 
and it was not till one day later that George 
Mason, destined to be the great leader in the 
labors of the committee, was, in like manner, 
made a member of it. One already so well 
known to the country, for his great abilities and 
experience, could not have been pretermitted in 
the original formation of the committee but for 
his absence at the time of its appointment; having 
been detained from his seat by an attack of his 
constitutional malady, the gout. 

The difficulty of the task intrusted to the 
committee corresponded with its dignity and im- 
portance. The first written constitution for a 
free, sovereign, and independent state which the 
history of the world had yet called forth, was 
now to be framed, and adjusted to new and un- 
tried circumstances. New Hampshire and South 
Carolina had, a few months before, adopted tem- 
porary and provisional governments, "during the 
continuance of the dispute with the mother 
country," and in view of an ultimate "recon- 
ciliation," which both of them, at the time, ear- 

VOL. I. 12 



134 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

nestly invoked. But these essays were so crude 
and imperfect, and bore such evident marks of 
the precarious and equivocal circumstances in 
which they were formed, that they could fur- 
nish no guide, or even useful hint, for the 
foundation of a permanent and self-existent gov- 
ernment. 

Mr. Adams, at the request of one of the del- 
egates of Virginia *in Congress, had written a 
small tract, containing "Thoughts on Govern- 
ment," which was sent to Virginia ; and another 
of the Virginia delegates had himself prepared 
a sketch of a constitution, founded on principles 
less democratic, which he addressed to the conven- 
tion through the public journals, under the anon- 
ymous signature of " A Native." x It does not 
appear that either of these contributions, how- 
ever well meant, and though the former received 
the hearty approbation of Mr. Henry, afforded 
any essential aid to the deliberations of the 
committee. The plan prepared by Mr. Jefferson, 
and forwarded through Mr. Wythe, arrived after 
the committee had made their report, and too 
late to be seriously considered. 

The first part of their task, as we have seen, 
was the preparation of a Declaration of Eights. 
The proper office of such a declaration, as it was 
conceived by the committee, was not merely to 

1 The tract of Mr. Adams is to " A Native," in American Ar- 
be found in his Works, vol. iv. chives, (4th series,) vol. VI. pp. 
p. 193, and the communication of 748-754. 



GEORGE MASON. 135 

proclaim an abstract theory of the rights of 
man, natural or civil, but to lay clown the great 
fundamental principles of just and free govern- 
ment, and to assert those inviolable safeguards 
which experience, as well as reason, had shown 
to be indispensable for the protection of public 
and private liberty. In this extent, the task 
demanded the maturest judgment, the largest 
wisdom, the discipline and training of the most 
thorough statesmanship. 

In George Mason, all these requisites were 
happily united. He had now attained the full 
meridian of life. He had taken a lively in- 
terest in every stage of the controversy with 
the mother country ; and his pen, while he was 
yet a private citizen, and clung with fond pref- 
erence to the endearments of domestic life, had 
been often and ably employed in vindicating 
the rights of the Colonies. For the first time, 
he was drawn from his retirement to supply the 
place of Washington as one of the members for 
Fairfax County in the convention of 1775, when 
the latter was appointed commander-in-chief of 
the army. In that convention, he so distinguished 
himself by his great abilities, untiring energy and 
fervid patriotism, that he was placed second to 
Pendleton on the committee of safety ; and he 
was also most honorably elected a delegate to 
the Continental Congress in the place of Mr. 
Bland, which situation, however, he was forced 
by domestic considerations to decline. 



136 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

He now came forth again from his cherished 
retirement to participate in the common coun- 
sels for the public safety. He was the type of 
that enlightened and patriotic class of country 
gentlemen, who sedulously eschew the political 
scene, except when imperiously summoned to it 
by the voice of duty and public danger. This 
circumstance, doubtless, strongly commended him 
to the confidence of his associates, while his 
well known wisdom and ability, — the fruit of 
long study and observation, — qualified him in an 
especial manner for the lead that was assigned 
him. 

Though not a lawyer by profession, no man 
was more profoundly versed in the constitutional 
lore, and the legislative and political history, of 
the parent state. This was the school in which 
he imbibed his free principles, with the strong 
conservative sentiments to which, in his case 
they were so closely allied. In a letter written 
to a friend and relative in England in 1778, while 
avowing his determination to " risk the last penny 
of his fortune and the last drop of his blood 
on the issue of independence," he says that "no 
man had been more warmly attached to the 
Hanover family, and the Whig interest of Eng- 
land, than I was, and few men had stronger 
prejudices in favor of that form of government 
under which I was born and bred." * 

1 See Letter to Col. George Mercer in Virginia Historical Register, 
vol. ii. p. 30. 



DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 137 

When we look at the Declaration of Rights 
prepared by him, and which, with a few altera* 
tions, was unanimously adopted by the conven- 
tion, we shall find it a condensed, logical, and 
luminous summary of the great principles of 
freedom inherited by us from our British ances- 
tors ; the extracted essence of Magna Charta, 
the Petition of Eight, the acts of the Long Par- 
liament, and the doctrines of the Revolution of 
1688 as expounded by Locke, — distilled and con- 
centrated through the alembic of his own pow- 
erful and discriminating mind. There is nothing 
more remarkable in the political annals of Amer- 
ica than this paper. It has stood the rude test 
of every vicissitude ; and while Virginia has al- 
ready had three different constitutions, the Dec- 
laration of Rights of 1776 has stood, and yet 
stands, without the change of a letter, at the head 
of each one of them, however difficult it may 
be to reconcile with its principles some of the 
provisions of the later constitutions. At the 
same time, its leading articles have been adopted 
into the constitutional acts of many of the other 
States, and also into those amendments of the 
constitution of the United States, which were 
deemed by the first Congress, that met under it, 
indispensable to complete the fabric of American 
liberty and Union. What a commentary is this, 
alike upon the largeness of British freedom in 
its original spirit and purity, and upon the con- 
servative genius and character of American lib- 

12* 



138 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

erty, as conceived by the founders of our insti- 
tutions. 1 

Every circumstance, relating to such a muni- 
ment of traditional freedom, is of public and 
lasting interest. The committee chosen to pre- 
pare it and a plan of government was, as we 
have seen, originally appointed on the 15th of 
May, and on the 18th, Mr. Mason was added to 
it. On the 27th of May, Mr. Archibald Cary, 
the chairman, reported the Declaration as agreed 
to by the select committee ; and it was ordered 
to be printed for the perusal of the members 
of the convention. The original draught pre- 
sented to the committee by Mr. Mason has, hap- 
pily, been preserved among his papers, and is 
now, in his own handwriting, carefully enshrined, 
as it deserves to be, in the public library of the 
State. By a comparison of that draught with 
the paper reported by Mr. Cary, of which we 
find a printed copy among the papers of Mr. 
Madison, (the only one, perhaps, now extant,) 
we are enabled at once to see the few verbal 
alterations made in it by the committee. 

In addition, however, to the fourteen articles 
which composed Mr. Mason's draught, the com- 
mittee reported three others ; of which one con- 
demned retrospective or ex post facto laws, an- 



1 In support of these views, we jriiiia Constitution of 1776, de- 
beg leave to commend to the livered before, the Historical So- 
readcr an admirable Discourse of ciety of Virginia, in January, 
Professor Washington on the Vir- 1852. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 139 

other general warrants, and the third declared 
the right of the people of Virginia to uniform 
government, and inhibited the erection of any 
separate or independent government within her 
limits. On the 10th of June, the convention 
resolved itself into a committee of the whole 
to take into consideration the Declaration of 
Rights as reported by the select committee ; and 
certain amendments to it were made in commit- 
tee of the whole, which were agreed to by the 
convention on the following day, and the day 
after, (the 12th of June,) the declaration as thus 
amended was unanimously adopted by the con- 
vention. 

In regard to the verbal alterations in Mr. 
Mason's draught which had been made by the 
select committee, it is a proof of the admirable 
precision with which his work was done that the 
convention, in almost every instance, restored the 
original version, and rejected the modifications 
of the committee. Of the three additional arti- 
cles proposed by the committee, that which re- 
lated to retrospective or ex post facto laws was 
rejected ; 1 but the other two respecting general 
warrants and uniform government were adopted 

■ It is a curious coincidence objections that clause of the in- 
connected with the decision of* the strument which absolutely and un- 
convention on this article, showing conditionally prohibits all ex post 
the probable influence of Colonel facto laws, whether by Congress 
Mason in producing it, that twelve or the legislatures of the States, 
years afterwards, in setting forth See his Objections, &c, in Sparks's 
his objections to the Federal Con- Washington, vol. ix. pp. 544- 
stitution, he included in those 547. 



140 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

with slight variations, and form a part of the 
Declaration, as it now stands. 

There was one amendment made by the con- 
vention, however, which merits special notice, 
both on account of the importance of the prin- 
ciple involved, and the connection of Mr. Madison 
with it. The last article of Colonel Mason's 
draught related to the vital subject of religious 
freedom. Setting forth, that religion, or the duty 
which we owe to our Creator, and the manner 
of discharging it, can be directed only by reason 
and conviction, not by force or violence, it pro- 
ceeded to declare that "all men should, there- 
fore, enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise 
of religion, according to the dictates of con- 
science, unpunished and unrestrained by the 
magistrate, unless, under color of religion, any 
man disturb the peace, the happiness, or the 
safety of society." This article was reported by 
the select committee without the suggestion of 
any amendment, and came before the convention 
precisely as it stood in Colonel Mason's draught. 

To Mr. Madison, however, there seemed to be 
both a dangerous and illogical implication in the 
use of the word toleration, as well as in the 
clause which admitted the restraining and puni- 
tive interposition of the civil magistrate in cases 
where the peace of society might be supposed 
to be endangered. Toleration belonged to a sys- 
tem in which there was an established Church, 
and where a certain liberty of worship is granted, 



AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY MR. MADISON. 141 

not of right but of grace, to dissenting denomi- 
nations ; and the exception to this granted lib- 
erty, in cases where the peace of society might 
be alleged to be in danger of being disturbed, 
was one which, in the hands of the dominant 
power, might be easily so construed as to impair, 
if not annul, the grant. 

These considerations impressed themselves so 
deeply upon the mind of Mr. Madison, that, 
though his remarkable modesty and the defer- 
ence he habitually paid to superior age and 
experience made him most reluctant to offer 
any suggestion of his own to the convention, 
yet an overruling sense of duty, with a profound 
and settled attachment to the principle of re- 
ligious freedom in its utmost latitude, impelled 
him to propose, in committee of the whole, an 
amendment to the Declaration, as it came from 
the hands of Colonel Mason and of the select 
committee. Instead of affirming that "all men 
should enjoy the fullest toleration hi the exer- 
cise of religion, &c," his amendment asserted the 
inherent and indefeasible right, by nature, to 
freedom of religion, declaring that "all men are 
equally entitled to the full and free exercise of 
it, according to the dictates of conscience ; " and 
to close the door more effectually against the 
dangers of an abusive exercise of the authority 
of the civil magistrate under the clause of ex- 
ception in Colonel Mason's draught, it added 
that "no man or class of men ought, on account 



142 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of religion, to be invested with peculiar emolu- 
ments or privileges, nor subjected to any penal- 
ties or disabilities, unless, under color of religion, 
the preservation of equal liberty and the exist- 
ence of the state are manifestly endangered." 

The result of Mr. Madison's motion was that 
the term toleration was excluded from the Decla- 
ration of Rights, and the assertion of an absolute 
and equal right in all to the free exercise of 
religion, as proposed by him, substituted in its 
place ; and the qualifying clause of the original 
draught, admitting the interposition of the civil 
magistrate in cases where the peace, happiness, 
or safety of society might be supposed to be in 
danger of being disturbed, was wholly omitted. 1 

1 That the reader may have the whole of this interesting matter 
under his eye at the same moment, we present here in parallel columns 
the draught of Colonel Mason, and the amendment of Mr. Madison, and 
subjoin underneath the article of the Declaration, as finally adopted : — 
Draught of Colonel Mason. Amendment of Mr. Madison. 

" That religion, or the duty we " That religion, or the duty we 
owe to our Creator, and the man- owe to our Creator, and the man- 
ner of discharging it, can be di- ner of discharging it, being under 
rected only by reason and convic- the direction of reason and convic- 
tion, not by force or violence : tion only, not of violence or com- 
and therefore, that all men should pulsion, all men are equally entitled 
enjoy the fullest toleration in the to the full and free exercise of it, 
exercise of religion, according to according to the dictates of con- 
the dictates of conscience, unpun- science, and, therefore, that no 
ished and unrestrained by the man or class of men ought, on ac- 
magistrate unless, under color of count of religion, to be invested 
religion, any man disturb the with peculiar emoluments or privi- 
peace, happiness, or safety of so- leges, nor subjected to any penalties 
ciety." or disabilities unless, under color of 

religion, the preservation of equal 
liberty and the existence of the 
state be manifestly endangered " 



AMENDMENT ADOPTED. 143 

Thus early were the wisdom and vigilant love 
of liberty of Mr. Madison, — then a young man, 
for the first time a member of a deliberative 
body, and of an extreme modesty, resembling in 
that, as in all his moral attributes, the great 
character of Washington, — incorporated with one 
of the noblest and most enduring monuments 
of American freedom and constitutional law. 
The term toleration had been admitted into the 
draught of Colonel Mason, doubtless, from his 
long familiarity with the leading precedents of 
English legislation, and with the great works of 
Locke, Hoadly, and others, by whom it had been 
used in a sense of unusual liberality for the 
country and times in which they wrote. Sub- 
jected, however, to a logical analysis, it embraced 
a dangerous fallacy ; and Mr. Madison, in ad- 
vance of his contemporaries, perceived the lurk- 
ing mischiefj and extirpated it from the Amer- 
ican code. * 

A celebrated writer, an early champion of 
American independence, has since given utter- 
ance to the same views of the subject in lan- 
guage of peculiar pungency and force. " Tol- 
eration," he says, "is not the opposite of in- 
tolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both 

The article, as finally adopted, is as follows : — 

" That religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner 
of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not 
by force or violence, and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the 
free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." 



144 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the 
right of withholding liberty of conscience, the 
other of granting it." l An English author, yet 
more profound, and not less an admirer of 
American institutions, has recorded similar opin- 
ions in the following grave and weighty lan- 
guage. 

" In liberty of conscience, I include much more 
than toleration. Christ has established a perfect 
equality among his followers. His command is 
that they shall assume no jurisdiction over one 
another, and acknowledge no master besides him- 
self. It is, therefore, presumption in any of them 
to claim a right to any superiority or preemi- 
nence over their brethren. Such a claim is im- 
plied, whenever any of them pretend to tolerate 
the rest. Toleration can take place only where 
there is a civil establishment of a particular 
mode of religion ; that is, where a predominant 
sect enjoys exclusive advantages, and makes the 
encouragement of its own mode of faith and 
worship a part of the constitution of the state, 
but at the same time thinks fit to suffer the ex- 
ercise of other modes of faith and worship. 
Thanks to God, the new American States are, at 
present, strangers to such establishments." z 

The changes here noticed in Colonel Mason's 
draught of the Declaration of Rights having taken 
place in committee of the whole, the Journal of 

1 See Paine's Rights of Man, p. 58. 

2 Observations on the Auieriean Revolution, by Dr. Price, p. 28. 



MEMORANDUM OF MR. MADISON. 145 

the convention, according to the usual mode of 
keeping that record, furnishes no clue to the his- 
tory of them. But among Mr. Madison's papers, 
as we have already stated, is a printed copy of 
the Declaration in the form in which it was re- 
ported by the select committee, corresponding, in 
the article relating to religion, precisely with the 
original draught of Colonel Mason ; and upon that 
copy is inscribed in the handwriting of Mr. Madi- 
son, evidently of contemporaneous date with the 
printed paper, the amendment proposed by him, 
as we have given it above. On a manuscript 
copy of the Declaration made by Mr. Madison at 
a later period of his life, and exhibiting in par- 
allel columns the instrument in the form in 
which it was reported by the select committee, 
and also in that in which it was finally adopt- 
ed by the convention, is the following note sub- 
joined by him to the last article : — 

"On the printed paper, here literally copied, 
is a manuscript variation of this last article 
making it read" — (Here the amendment pro- 
posed by him is incorporated.) " This variation," 
he adds, "is in the handwriting of J. M., and is 
recollected to have been brought forward by him 
with a view, more particularly, to substitute for 
the idea expressed by the term 'toleration,' an 
'absolute and equal right' in all to the exer- 
cise of religion according to the dictates of con- 
science. The proposal was moulded into the 
last article in the Declaration as finally estab- 

VOL. I. 13 



146 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

lished, from which the term 'toleration' is ex- 
cluded." n 

We have been thus minute in tracing the his- 
tory of the amendment proposed by Mr. Madison 
to the Declaration of Rights, not only to render 
the tribute clue to the early wisdom and sagac- 
ity of the youthful statesman, but because the 
amendment itself forms an era in the history of 
American liberty. In discarding a term hitherto 
consecrated, in some degree, as a symbol of lib- 
erty, but intrinsically fallacious, and fraught with 
dangerous implications, it erected a new and 
loftier platform for the fabric of religious free- 
dom. It planted, at the same time, the germ of 
all those measures which were afterwards pur- 
sued, and finally consummated mainly, as we 
shall see, through his agency, for removing every 
civil distinction, — privileges on the one hand, or 
disabilities on the other, — founded on religious 
opinion, and covering the rights of conscience 
under the broadest possible shield of legislative 
protection. 

The fundamental principles of free government 
being thus agreed upon, the next thing was to 
embody them in a practical and organized plan 
of government. To the same committee which 
had been charged with the preparation of the 
Declaration of Rights, was confided also, as we 

1 In the Appendix B will be by the select committee, and the 

found the Rill of Rights in its three form in which it was adopted by 

several stages — the original draft the convention, 
of Mr. Mason, the version reported 



PLANS OF CONSTITUTION PROPOSED. 147 

have seen, the framing of the constitution, or 
plan of government. Of what passed in the in- 
terior deliberations of the committee we have 
but little knowledge. Patrick Henry, who was 
a member of it, writing to Mr. John Adams on 
the 20th of May, five days after the appoint- 
ment of the committee, says : " Our convention 
is now employed in the great work of forming 
a constitution. My most esteemed republican 
plan has many and powerful enemies." 

He then comments with no small severity upon 
the projet of a constitution, (the same to which 
we have already referred.) which had just been 
published under the auspices of Mr. Braxton, 
one of the delegates of Virginia in Congress, 
and of which that gentleman was supposed to 
be the author. It proposed a triennial house 
of representatives, a council for life, and a gov- 
ernor during good behaviour, (to be chosen by 
the house of representatives,) and having the 
power of appointment to the most important 
public offices. It was framed with the nearest 
possible approximation to the aristocratical and 
monarchical features of the British model, on 
which the writer pronounced the highest eulo- 
gium. 

That such a proposal should have revolted 
the republican sentiments of Mr. Henry, is not 
at all surprising. We cannot, however, avoid 
being surprised when, recurring to the difficulty 
and importance of the work devolving on the 



148 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

convention, he adds: "I cannot count upon one 
coadjutor of talents equal to the task. Would 
to God that you and your Sam Adams were 
here ! " At the time of inditing these lines, Mr. 
Henry probably had at his side, in his committee- 
room, colleagues who, if inferior in learning to 
his correspondent, were in depth of wisdom and 
true statesmanship far his superiors; and one of 
them, George Mason, was well known to Mr. 

Henry. 

Mr. Adams had communicated to Mr. Henry 
a small tract, prepared at the instance of Mr. 
Wythe and Richard Henry Lee, containing his 
"Thoughts on Government," and the outline of 
such a constitution as he would recommend. 
The outline proposed a representative assembly 
to be annually chosen by those who owned a 
certain quantity of land ; and that this assembly 
should annually choose out of its own body, or 
the community at large, twenty or thirty persons 
to form a council, which should constitute a dis- 
tinct and coequal branch of the legislature with 
itself; and that these two should, by joint ballot, 
annually elect a governor, who was to have a 
negative upon the laws, and also the power, with 
the advice of a privy council, of appointing to 
all the offices of state. Without subjecting this 
scheme, of which Mr. Henry expressed his hearty 
approbation, to any formal criticism, it is obvious 
to remark that, attaching as Mr. Adams did the 
highest possible importance to the separation of 



FIRST DRAUGHT OF CONSTITUTION. 149 

the legislative department into two distinct and 
independent branches, which he pronounced to 
be the vital and indispensable condition of a free 
government, it is a somewhat crude, if not con- 
tradictory provision in his plan which gives the 
annual and absolute election of one branch to 
the other. 

The only surviving trace we have of the de- 
liberations of the select committee, upon the plan 
of government they were charged with prepar- 
ing, is a printed copy among Mr. Madison's 
papers, of a plan which appears from a note in 
his handwriting, to have been " laid before that 
committee, and by them ordered to be printed 
for the perusal of the members of the House." 
This plan provides that the legislative depart- 
ment be formed of two distinct branches, one 
to be called the lower house of assembly, to 
consist of two members for each county, chosen 
annually by the qualified voters ; the other the 
upper house, to consist of twenty-four members, 
to be chosen for four years by an intermediate 
body of deputies elected by the people in the 
respective districts, and the members to be so 
arranged into classes that one fourth of the 
number shall go out at the end of every year, 
and be then ineligible for four years. The right 
of suffrage is limited, in the first instance, to 
freeholders possessing a certain estate of inher- 
itance, but accompanied with a provision that it 
be extended, in future, to leaseholders for a 

13* 



150 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

term of seven years at least, and to housekeep- 
ers, being fathers of three children in the coun- 
try. 

The governor or chief magistrate, it provides, 
shall be chosen annually by joint ballot of the 
two houses, not to continue in office longer 
than three years successively, and then to be 
ineligible for the next four years. Tie is to 
exercise the executive powers of government in 
general, with the advice of a council of state, 
and with the like advice, to appoint justices of 
the peace and officers of the militia, and to 
commission clerks, sheriffs, and coroners upon 
the nomination of the respective courts. The 
council of state shall consist of eight members 
to be chosen by joint ballot of the two houses, 
and two of the members to be removed by 
vote of their own board at the end of every 
three years, and to be then ineligible for the 
next three years. The judges of common law, 
chancery, and admiralty, and the attorney-gen- 
eral, shall be chosen by joint ballot of the two 
houses, and continue in office during good be- 
haviour, and the treasurer be chosen annually 
in the same mode. 

Such is the outline of the plan submitted to 
the select committee and ordered by them to 
be printed, as we find it among the papers of 
Mr. Madison. How far and in what respects it 
was modified by the select committee in their 
report to the convention, we are without the 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 



151 



means of ascertaining, as no copy of that report 
can now be found. 1 It was on the 24th of 
June that the select committee reported the 
plan as agreed to by them to the convention. 
On the 26th, 27th, and 28th of June, it was 
under the consideration of the convention in 
committee of the whole. On the last of these 
days, it was reported from the committee of the 
whole to the convention, with amendments, and 
the plan, together with the amendments, ordered 



1 A copy of the printed paper 
originally laid before the select 
committee, and obtained probably 
from Mr. Madison, was published 
near thirty years ago in the " Lit- 
erary Museum " of the University 
of Virginia. (See No. of 23d of 
September, -1829.) It is there 
published under the title of " A 
plan of government laid before 
the committee of the house, which 
they have ordered to be printed 
for the perusal of the members ; " 
which might, naturally enough, 
lead to the inference that it was 
the plan reported by the select 
committee to the convention, re- 
ferred to the committee of the 
whole house and by them ordered 
to be printed; and as such, it is 
commented upon by the editors of 
the Museum. Mr. Madison, how- 
ever, has with the pen corrected 
this title in the copy remaining 
among his papers, so as to make it 
read, according to the citation in 
the text, " A plan of government 
laid before the committee appoint- 



ed for that purpose, which they 
have ordered to be printed for the 
perusal of the members of the 
house." This reading evidently 
excludes, as it was intended to do, 
the supposition that the printed 
paper was the report made by 
the select committee to the con- 
vention, and referred to the com- 
mittee of the whole. The journal 
of the convention shows there was 
no order for the printing of the 
report of the select committee of a 
plan of government, as there was 
in the case of the Declaration of 
Rights. The editors of the Mu- 
seum are also mistaken in saying 
that this paper which they call a 
Report, (considering it as the re- 
port of the select committee to the 
convention,) is dated June 24, 
1 776. That, according to the jour- 
nal of the convention, was the day 
when the select committee made 
their report to the convention. 
But the paper referred to is with- 
out any date whatever. 



152 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

to be transcribed and read a third time. On 
the 29th of the month, the plan of government 
so transcribed was read the third time and unan- 
imously adopted. 

On comparing the constitution, as adopted, 
with the plan submitted to the committee, we 
recognize a pervading likeness in their general 
features, and yet material variations in particu- 
lar provisions. 1 The most striking of these vari- 
ations is in the manner of electing the senate, 
substituting a direct for an intermediate elec- 
tion — in the periodical removal of two members 
of the privy council by a vote of the houses 
of assembly, instead of their own board — a 
more jealous limitation of the powers of the 
governor — and a precise and permanent defini- 
tion of the right of suffrage by reference to the 
existing law, which made it consist in the pos- 
session of a freehold estate in twenty-five acres 
of improved, or a hundred of unimproved, land. 
There were a few additional articles, not found 
in the original plan, among which the most no- 
ticeable, perhaps, is the disqualification of all 
persons holding lucrative offices, and all minis- 
ters of the gospel of every denomination, to be 
members of either house of the assembly or of 
the privy council. 2 



I To facilitate a more minute 2 The article of the adopted eon- 

and satisfactory comparison of the stitution, which excludes ministers 

two instruments, they will both be of the gospel from political station, 

found in the Appendix, C. has been the subject of criticism 



VIRGINIA CONSTITL xION OF 1776. 153 

In looking back to the Virginia constitution 
of 1776, with all the lights "which the interme- 
diate experience of eighty years has shed on 
the science of popular government, we cannot 
but be struck with the reach of practical wis- 
dom and sagacious statesmanship exhibited in 
its construction. It was a system which, while 
resting on the general principle of the sover- 
eignty of the people and equal rights, was so 
organized as to combine justice and moderation 
with power, and to erect barriers against every 
species of arbitrary authority, whether of one, 
the few, or the many. It set limits even to 
the sovereignty of the people itself by declaring 
that there are certain inherent, individual rights 
which no human power can lawfully invade ; 
and in the ordinary and regular action of the 
constituted authorities, it provided the most effi- 
cient security against abuse, not merely by di- 
viding the whole government into separate and 
distinct departments according to the nature of 

by speculative writers', particularly it seems indispensable to carry out, 

Turgot in his celebrated letter to in practice, the great and vital 

Dr. Price on the American consti- problem of the separation of Church 

fcutions. Mr. Madison even, in a and State. Experience has fully 

letter addressed by him in 1 78S vindicated the wisdom of the pro- 

to Mr. John Brown, one of the vision in preserving the purity and 

first senators of Kentucky in the respect of the sacred office ; in 

Congress of the United States, most striking contrast with its des- 

takes exception to it as an appar- ecration by worldly passions and 

ent departure from the principle contentions, wherever the political 

which condemns all civil disabili- arena has been thrown open to 

ties and incapacitations on account clerical champions. 
of religion. On the other hand, 



154 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

their respective functions, but by dividing each 
department into branches, whose concurrence 
should be necessary to utter the deliberate sense 
of that particular organ of the public will. The 
department, whose great province it is, in the 
administration of justice, not only to protect 
private right and punish public wrong, but to 
maintain the balance of the constitution itself 
by passing upon the validity of the acts of the 
other departments, was endowed with the firm- 
ness and independence necessary for the proper 
discharge of its high functions by the tenure 
of good behaviour alone. 

While every department of the government 
was derived, directly or indirectly, from a popu- 
lar origin, the right of suffrage was exercised 
by those who, by a fixed ownership, however 
small, in the soil of the country, were attached 
by " a permanent common interest " to the so- 
ciety, whose destinies they controlled. Nor was 
this great and naturally virtuous body of elec- 
tors, — the middle classes of society, removed alike 
from the temptations of riches or poverty, — 
called upon to fill, by their own immediate 
choice, all the various grades of public magis- 
tracy. After the election of their representa- 
tives in the legislative department, upon which 
mainly devolved the guardianship of the public 
interests, it was thought that the choice of most 
of the other public functionaries, whether local 
or general, might safely and wisely, and greatly 



MAXIMS OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT. 155 

to the relief of the people themselves, be left 
to intermediate agencies created by their will 
and possessing their confidence. 

He is no true friend of popular government 
or popular liberty who is for calling the sover- 
eign power of the people into action for every 
occasion, whether great or small, and thus dis- 
turbing that calm, deliberate, and impartial re- 
vision, at stated times, of the conduct of public 
servants, which is the highest and most essential 
attribute of popular sovereignty, as it is the 
best preservative of freedom. The necessary 
consequence of so frequent and teasing a recur- 
rence to the popular suffrage is to weary and 
disgust the people with its exercise, and to en- 
slave them to the habitual guidance of party 
leaders and managers, who cover, and hardly 
cover, their own interested and selfish ends un- 
der a pretence of public zeal. 1 

1 The following reflections of a to act in their own persons, it is 

most able and profound political impossible for them to acquire any 

writer who, being the native of a exact knowledge of the state of 

Republic, (Geneva,) had the am- things. The event of one day 

plest opportunities of becoming effaces the notions which they had 

practically acquainted with the begun to adopt on the preceding 

subject of which he treats, deserve day; and amidst the continual 

to be constantly present to the change of things, no settled prin- 

minds of all true friends of popu- ciple, and above all, no plans of 

lar government. union, have time to be established 

" Here, also, we must remark among them. You wish to have 

the error of those who, as they the people love and defend their 

make the liberty of the people laws and liberty ; — leave them, 

consist in their power, so make therefore, the necessary time to 

their power consist in their action, know what laws and liberty are, 

When the people are often called and to agree in their opinion con- 



156 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



The men who framed the constitution of 1776 
were men versed in the history of popular gov- 
ernments, as well as profoundly conversant with 
the principles of human nature, and the charac- 
ter, circumstances, and genius of the people for 
whom they acted. They had studied the ancient 
democracies, and knew well the vices and infirm- 
ities by which they were led to the worst of 
tyrannies. They had no design of adding an- 
other to the list of these disastrous and discred- 
ited experiments. Their purpose was to found, 
not a democracy upon the ancient model, but a 
republic, 1 in which the people exercised theii 



cernlng them. You wish an union, 
a coalition, which cannot be ob- 
tained but by a slow and peacea- 
ble process ; — forbear, therefore, 
continually to shake the vessel. 

" When the people are too fre- 
quently called to move, each indi- 
vidual is obliged, for the success 
of the measures in which he is 
then made to take a concern, to 
join himself to some party ; nor 
can this party be without a head. 
The citizens thus grow divided 
among themselves, and contract 
the pernicious habit of submitting 
to leaders. They are, at length, 
no more than the clients of a cer- 
tain number of patrons." De 
Lolme on the Constitution of Eng- 
land, book ir. chap. 14. 

1 Aristotle, who, of all writers 
ancient or modern, has given most 
attention to the various modifi- 
cations of which government is 
susceptible, having studied and 



described, in a work now lost, the 
constitutions of one hundred and 
fifty different States of Greece and 
her colonies, considered democracy 
not a regular and legitimate form, 
but a corruption, of popular gov- 
ernment. The genuine form of a 
government, founded on free, pop- 
ular principles, in his view, was a 
balanced republic, acknowledging 
the supremacy of law and aiming 
at the common good of all classes, 
including minorities, as well as 
majorities. It was this which he 
distinguished particularly by the 
name of TioliTEia, or a free State ; 
and the corruption of it he called 
a democracy, between which and 
a tyranny he traced a close resem- 
blance. See his Politics, book in. 
chap. 7, and book iv. chap. 2 
and 4. 

It was not without a knowledge 
of this important distinction that 
the able and wise men, who form- 



REPUBLIC AND DEMOCRACY. 157 

rightful power through delegated and responsible 
agencies; to each of which was marked out its 
proper province of action by the constitution, 
the supreme law, binding both upon the people 
and their agents, until changed by a like solemn 
and authentic act of the public will. 

In this republican form of polity, contradis- 
tinguished from democracy, the authors of the 
constitution of 1776 saw the highest guarantee, 
not only for the public order and happiness, but 
for popular liberty itself. The distinction has 
been fearfully but most instructively illustrated 
by the democratic experiments which, since their 
day, have been added to the lessons of history, 
in that fruitful but sanguinary hot-bed of polit- 
ical theories and revolutions, — France. The pres- 
ent imperial ruler of that country has said, 
" France is democratic, not republican. By de- 
mocracy, I mean the government of an individ- 
ual by the will of all, — by a republic, I mean 
the government of a number, in obedience to a 
certain system." * 



ed the constitution of the United man and the scholar were so ad- 
States, provided in that instrument ruirably blended. See his Works, 
for the guarantee of a " republi- vol. i. pp. 364-442. 
can " form of government to each ' These aphorisms, the result 
State of the Union. of much thought and deliberation, 
The subject of the Grecian de- were delivered by Louis Napoleon 
mocracies, and of democracy in in a conversation with Colonel 
general, has been most ably treated Vaudrey, recorded in the preface 
in a paper of the late Hugh S. to the English edition of his Ide'es 
Legare, attorney-general of the Napoleoniennes. They are sub- 
United States, in whom the states- stantially repeated in the body of 

VOL. I. 14 



158 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

There cannot be a more striking proof of the 
real merits and essential wisdom of the constitu- 
tion of 1776 than that, in an age of change and 
revolution, it firmly maintained its ground, for a 
period of fifty-four years, against the persevering 
assaults of a host of critics and theorists, sus-- 
tinned by the authority of some of the highest 
names in the State ; and, when at last it was 
superseded by a new experiment, which in its 
turn has given place to another, that there is 
hardly now a thinking man of any party in 
Virginia who would not gladly exchange the 
modern structure and all its imagined improve- 
ments for the ancient constitution just as it was, 
with only a necessary readjustment of the rep- 
resentation to the changes which have taken 
place in the local distribution of the population. 
" Government," our wise ancestors thought with 
Burke, "was a practical thing, made for the hap- 
piness of mankind, and not to furnish out a 
spectacle of uniformity to gratify the schemes of 
visionary politicians." * 

To what leading; character in the convention 
we ' were mainly indebted for a work of so much 
practical wisdom, is an inquiry naturally prompted 

that work, and especially in the parte, vol. I. pp. 202, 203, and 

passage where he says, — " La na- note, and pp. 222, 223. 

ture de la democratic est de se l Burke's Letter to the Sheriffs 

personnifier dans un homme; " of Bristol in 1777, on the Affairs 

the nature of democracy is to per- of America, — abounding in lessons 

sonify itself in one man. See of political wisdom. 

(Euvres de Louis Napoleon Bona- 



ORIGIN OF FIRST DRAUGHT. 159 

by a sentiment of filial respect for our ancestors, 
as well as by the search of historic truth in 
whatever relates to an event so important. The 
belief has been hitherto almost universal that 
the first draught of the constitution of 1776 
was from the same able and luminous pen which 
produced the Declaration of Rights. The papers 
of Mr. Madison, without authoritatively settling 
the question, furnish some materials of specula- 
tion and conjecture, which it would not be proper 
to overlook. In the evening of his life, and 
amid the leisure of his philosophical retirement, 
he seems to have turned, with lively interest, to 
the reminiscences of this the opening scene of 
his public career and associations. In a paper, in 
which he retraces the proceedings of the Vir- 
ginia convention in relation to independence and 
the formation of a State constitution, he embod- 
ies a copy of the first draught of the constitution, 
the outlines of which we have given above, and 
subjoins to it the following note : — 

" It is not known with certainty from whom 
this first draught of a plan of government pro- 
ceeded. There is a faint tradition that Meri- 
wether Smith spoke of it as originating with 
him. What is remembered by J. M. is that 
George Mason was the most prominent member 
in discussing and developing the constitution in 
its passage through the convention. The pream- 
ble is known to have been furnished by Thomas 
Jefferson." 



160 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

At a period probably subsequent to this note, 
which is without date, one of the grandsons of 
Colonel Mason, desiring to prepare a biographical 
memoir of his illustrious ancestor, applied to Mr. 
Madison for the aid of his personal recollections. 
From Mr. Madison's answer, dated the 29th of 
December, 1827, we give the following extract, 
which, while recounting (with his habitual mod- 
esty as to himself) the distinguished part borne 
by Colonel Mason in all the labors of the con- 
vention of 1776, has a particular bearing on the 
question we are now considering : — 

a The biographical tribute you meditate is 
justly due to the merits of your ancestor, 
Colonel George Mason. It is to be regretted 
that, highly distinguished as he was, the memo- 
rials of them on record, or perhaps otherwise 
attainable, are more scanty, than of many of his 
contemporaries far inferior to him in intellectual 
powers and public services. It would afford me 
a pleasure to be a tributary to your undertaking. 
But although I had the advantage of being on 
the list of his personal friends, and, in several 
instances, of being associated with him in public 
life, I can add little for the pages of your 
work. 

" My first acquaintance with him was in the 
convention of Virginia in 1776, which instructed 
her delegates to propose in Congress a 'Declara- 
tion of Independence,' and which formed the 
'Declaration of Rights,' and the 'Constitution' 



RECOLLECTIONS OF MR. MADISON. 161 

for the State. Being young and inexperienced, 
I had, of course, but little agency in those pro- 
ceedings. I retain, however, a perfect impression 
that he was a leading champion for the Instruc- 
tion ; that he was the author of the e Declara- 
tion,' as originally drawn, and, with very slight 
variations, adopted ; and that he was the master- 
builder of the constitution, and its main expos- 
itor and supporter throughout the discussions 
which ended in its establishment. How far he 
may have approved it, in all its features as 
established, I am not able to say; and it is the 
more difficult to make the discovery now, unless 
the private papers left by him should give the 
information, as, at that day, no debates were 
taken down, and as the explanatory votes, if 
there were such, may have occurred in commit- 
tee of the whole only, and of course, not appear 
in the journals. I have found, among my papers, 
a printed copy of the constitution in one of 
its stages, which, compared with the instrument 
finally agreed to, shows some of the changes it 
underwent; but in no instance, at whose sug- 
gestion or by whose votes. 

" I have also a printed copy of a sketched 
constitution which appears to have been the 
primitive draught on the subject. It is so dif- 
ferent, in several respects, from the constitution 
finally passed, that it may be more than doubted 
whether it was from the pen of your grand- 
father. There is a tradition that it was from 

14* 



162 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



that of Meriwether Smith ; whose surviving pa- 
pers, if to be found among his descendants, 
might throw light on the question. I ought to 
be less at a loss than I am in speaking of these 
circumstances, having been myself an added 
member to the committee. But such has been 
the lapse of time that, without any notes of what 
passed, and with the many intervening scenes 
absorbing my attention, my memory cannot do 
justice to my wishes. Your grandfather, as the 
journal shows, was, at a later day, added to the 
committee, being, doubtless, not present when it 
was appointed, as he never would have been 
overlooked." 1 



1 Though not relating to the 
particular subject discussed in the 
text, we cannot forbear adding 
here two other paragraphs of this 
letter of Mr. Madison, in order to 
complete his view of the distin- 
guished character of Col. Mason; 
and also to show that, notwith- 
standing the wide difference of 
opinion which afterwards arose 
between them in regard to the 
constitution of the United States, 
and which may have somewhat 
chilled their personal relations at 
the time, it did not affect, in 
the slightest degree, the generous 
award of a noble and elevated 
sense of justice. 

" The public situation," Mr. 
Madison proceeds to say in the 
letter cited above, " in which I 
had the best opportunity of being 
acquainted with the genius, the 



opinions, and the public labors of 
Col. Mason, was that of our co- 
service in the convention of 1787, 
which formed the constitution of 
the United States. The objections 
which led him to withhold his name 
from it have been explained by 
himself. But none who differed 
from him on some points will deny 
that he sustained, throughout the 
proceedings of the body, the high 
character of a powerful reasoner, 
a profound statesman, and a de- 
voted republican. 

"My private intercourse with 
him was chiefly on occasional 
visits to Gunston, when journey- 
ing to and from the North, in 
which his conversations were al- 
ways a feast to me. But though 
in a high degree such, my recol- 
lection, after so long an interval, 
cannot particularize them in a 



QUESTION CONSIDERED. 163 

The variations between the first draught of the 
constitution as submitted to the select commit- 
tee, and the constitution as finally adopted, will 
probably present themselves to different minds 
with different impressions of their importance. 
Most readers will perhaps be less struck with 
these variations, than with the resemblance of 
the two instruments in their general structure, 
and the coincidence in the order and arrange- 
ment of their several parts. And when the long 
prevalence of the opinion that Colonel Mason was 
the author of the first draught of the constitution, 
as well as its leading champion and supporter in 
the form in which it was adopted, is considered, 
the public mind will be naturally slow to admit 
now a different hypothesis. 1 If the author of the 

form adapted to biographical use. It is proper, however, to add that 

I hope others of his friends still to a copy of this last letter among 

living, who enjoyed more of his Mr. Madison's papers is subjoined 

society, will be able to do more a note, under date of July, 1826, 

justice to the fund of instructive referring to the paper quoted in 

observations and interesting an- the text as containing a " more 

ecdotes for which he was cele- recollected view of the matter." 
brated." For those who may be curious 

1 Mr. Madison's own impression, to pursue this inquiry, there is one 

at an earlier period, seems to have circumstance which, though small 

been that the first draught of the in itself, is not unworthy of consid- 

constitution was by Col. Mason, eration. In the long disputed ques- 

See his letter to Gen. Washington tion of the authorship of the Icon 

of the 18th of October, 1787, where Basilike, or the still disputed one 

he incidentally speaks of the con- of the Letters of Junius, it might 

stitution of Virginia as having been have been deemed of weight suffi- 

drawn by Col. Mason, (Sparks's cient to turn the scale. In the first 

Wash. vol. IX. pp. 547-549,) and draught of the constitution of Vir- 

also his letter to Judge Woodward ginia, the word "judicative " is used 

of the 11th of September, 1824. instead of judicial, in speaking of 



164 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



primitive draught, and the "master-builder of the 
constitution, and its main expositor and supporter," 
as Mr. Madison says Colonel Mason was, should 
have been different persons, while to the first 
we must accord a just share of praise for con- 
ception and combination, he who perfected and 
finished the plan, and, by the concurring testi- 



ihc three great departments of gov- 
ernment. In the first draught of 
the Bill of Rights, the known pro- 
duction of George Mason, the word 
judicial, and not judicative, is 
used in precisely the same connec- 
tion. The select committee, to 
which Col. Mason's draught of the 
Bill of Rights was submitted, re- 
ported a version of it differing in 
several particulars from his, and 
among other alterations, they struck 
out the word judicial, and substi- 
tuted judicative. This report, there 
is reason to believe, was drawn by 
Meriwether Smith. 

He was the second upon the 
committee ; and the chairman, Col. 
Archibald Cary, is not likely to 
have drawn it. Moreover, there 
is a letter extant of George Wil- 
liam Smith, at one time lieutenant- 
governor of Virginia, and son of 
Meriwether Smith, in which he 
says he had a draught of the Decla- 
ration of Rights in the handwriting 
of his father. This was, in all 
probability, the draught reported 
by the select committee, in which 
the word "judicative" was used 
for judicial. 

The same characteristic and not 
happily chosen word was, as we 



have seen, used in the first draught 
of the constitution of Virginia, and 
would so em to indicate a common 
origin for that draught and the al- 
tered draught of the Bill of Rights 
as reported by the select committee. 
If Meriwether Smith was the au- 
thor of the one, he may be pre- 
sumed to be the author of the other. 
There is no known instance in 
which Col. Mason used the word 
judicative for judicial ; and the 
convention, in acting both on the 
constitution and the Bill of Rights, 
adopted judiciary as the appropri- 
ate word. It may also be remark- 
ed, in addition to this curious piece 
of presumptive evidence, that Col. 
Mason, in his most admirable let- 
ter of the 2d of October, 1778, to 
Col. George Mercer, while ex- 
pressly mentioning that the Bill of 
Rights was drawn by him, speaks 
of the constitution in general 
terms, as an instrument by which 
" we have endeavoured to provide 
the most effectual securities for the 
essential rights of human nature, 
in civil and religious liberty," with- 
out any intimation that the origi- 
nal draught of it proceeded from his 
pen. [See this letter in Virginia 
Historical Register.] 



ABLE MEN OF THE CONVENTION. 165 

• 

mony of all, "bore the heat and burden of the 
day" in its exposition and defence, and carried 
it triumphantly through the convention, will, in 
the estimation of mankind, have achieved by far 
the most solid and lasting claim on the grati- 
tude of his country. If they should have been 
one and the same person, the double glory is 
a rich and overflowing fund, which the right- 
ful possessor may well afford to divide with 
able and meritorious co-laborers in the same 
cause. 

That there were many such in the convention, 
we need only to look over the list of members, 
and to recollect the length of time (from the 15th 
of May to the 29th of June) during which the 
subject of a plan of government was under con- 
sideration, either in committee or before the 
whole body, to be entirely satisfied. Such vetr 
eran statesmen as Richard Bland, Edmund Pen- 
dleton, Patrick Henry, Robert Carter Nicholas, 
Thomas Ludwell Lee, Archibald Cary, not to 
mention others whose wisdom and capacity were 
acknowledged by being called to fill some of the 
most important offices under the new govern- 
ment, could not have been idle and unassisting 
spectators, when so great a work was in hand 
as laying the foundations of the first free and 
balanced republican government, without privi- 
lege or caste, which the world had yet seen. 
Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe also re- 
turned from their duties in Congress in time to 



166 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

take part in the closing deliberations of the con- 
vention on the constitution. 

In this review must be included likewise Mer- 
iwether Smith, to whom a vague tradition, as 
we have seen, has ascribed the first draught of the 
constitution. Though his name is little familiar 
to the present generation, he was undoubtedly 
a man of mark in his day, as is sufficiently at- 
tested by the circumstance of his being named 
second on the committee appointed to prepare 
the Declaration of Rights and a plan of govern- 
ment, as well as by the many public offices, — 
councillor of state, delegate to the Congress of 
the Confederation, the convention of Annapolis, 
and the ratifying convention of Virginia of 1788, 
and member of the legislature, — which he after- 
wards filled. 

Nor can we suppose, notwithstanding the 
modest self-disqualification of Mr. Madison, that, 
"young and inexperienced" though he was, his 
well-trained mind, and those of his two youthful 
and rising colleagues, Edmund Randolph and 
Henry Tazewell, were not earnestly directed to 
this great work ; while the reserved corps of 
grave, practical men, whose business was not so 
much to speak as to think and act, calmly 
watched and controlled every step of its pro- 
gress. The character, thought, wisdom, and patri- 
otism of an entire generation of superior men 
were thus stamped and moulded into the consti- 
tution of 1776; and it is the immortal praise of 



PATRICK HENRY ELECTED GOVERNOR. 167 

George Mason to have been the acknowledged 
leader of such an assembly, and the accredited 
exponent and champion of its principles. 

Immediately after the adoption of the consti- 
tution, and on the same day, the convention 
proceeded to the election of the governor and 
council, upon whom the executive administration 
of the new government was to devolve. Mr. 
Henry was chosen governor ; and from his letter 
of acceptance we are authorized to conclude that 
the constitution just adopted fulfilled entirely his 
conception of that " most esteemed republican 
plan," which, in his letter to Mr. Adams, he said 
he had so much at heart. To the convention, he 
says : " I shall enter upon the duties of my office, 
whenever you, gentlemen, shall be pleased to 
direct, relying upon the known wisdom and vir- 
tue of your honorable House to supply my de- 
fects, and to give permanency and success to that 
system of government which you have formed, 
and which is so wisely calculated to secure equal 
liberty and to advance human happiness." After 
making further provisions for military defence, 
and providing for the election of the senatorial 
branch of the new legislature, the convention, on 
the 5th day of July, adjourned to meet in Wil- 
liamsburg on the first Monday in October fol- 
lowing, then to serve as a House of Delegates, in 
virtue of the annual election of April last, and, 
with the Senate, form the General Assembly of 
the Commonwealth of Virginia. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Military Reverses of the Second Campaign of the Revolutionary 
War — First Session of the new Republican Legislature of Vir- 
ginia — Measures for extending the Benefits of Religious Freedom 
— Abolition of Entails — Provision for the General Revision of the 
Laws — First Acquaintance of Jefferson and Madison — Energetic 
Resolutions of the Virginia Legislature for the Conduct of the 
War — The Tide of Disaster turned by the Daring and Heroism 
of Washington at Trenton and Princeton — Election of a new 
Legislature in Virginia — Mr. Madison loses his Election by his 
Respect for the Purity of the Elective Franchise — Chosen by the 
General Assembly to be a Member of the Council of State — Cor- 
respondence between him and the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith — ■ 
Relations with Governor Henry — Important Agency of the Gov- 
ernor and Council in expediting the Levies of Troops for the 
General Defence — Liberal Spirit manifested by Virginia for the 
Assistance of her sister States — Expedition and brilliant Success 
of George Rogers Clarke under the Auspices of Virginia — British 
Ministry induced by the Capture of Burgoyne's Army to seek 
Reconciliation with the American States ■ — Proceedings of the 
Royal Commissioners in America ■ — ■ Evacuation of Philadelphia, 
and Battle of Monmouth — Treaty of Alliance with France — 
Efforts to detach America from it — Operations against the South- 
ern States — Reduction of Georgia — Invasion of Virginia — Mr. 
Jefferson Successor to Governor Henry — Virginia ratifies Treaty 
of Alliance with France by her own independent Act — Negotia- 
tions with Spain — Demands made by that Power as Conditions of 
I 



MILITARY REVERSES. 169 

her Cooperation in the War — Resolutions of the Legislature of 
Virginia with Regard to the Navigation of the Mississippi — Her 
Remonstrance to Congress on the Subject of the Western Territory 
— Mr. Madison chosen one of her Delegates in the Congress of the 
Confederation. 

On the 7th day of October, 1776, commenced 
in Williamsburg, under the auspices of the new 
constitution, the first session of the independent 
Legislative Assembly of Virginia. A remarkable 
and providential series of military successes had 
attended the first year of the contest with the 
armed tyranny of the mother country. The able 
generalship of Washington had forced the British 
army to abandon its stronghold at Boston ; an 
imposing expedition against Charleston, the prin- 
cipal seaport of the South, under the command 
of Sir Henry Clinton, had been signally re- 
pulsed ; in North Carolina and Virginia, discom- 
fiture had everywhere attended the arms of the 
enemy; and from the latter State, the infamous 
and revengeful Dunmore, with his piratical bands, 
had been at last driven out with total and piti- 
able overthrow. But the tide of fortune now 
began to ebb ; and the disastrous battle of Long 
Island, and the expulsion of the American army 
from the city of New York by the overwhelm- 
ing superiority of the enemy's forces concentred 
there, commenced that mournful succession of 
reverses which tried, to the uttermost, the great 
soul of the commander-in-chief, and called for 

VOL. I. 15 



170 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the united fortitude, courage, and wisdom of all 
America. 

In the midst of these circumstances of general 
anxiety, the new republican legislature of Vir- 
ginia entered upon their labors. Their attention 
was first turned to certain alterations in the in- 
ternal and domestic policy of the State, which 
seemed indispensable to place it in harmony 
with the principles of the new government. Of 
these, the most urgent was some measure for 
the equal extension of the benefits of religious 
freedom to every class of citizens ; and to this 
vital reform the consideration of the legislature 
was earnestly called by numerous petitions. An- 
other measure which the republican genius of 
the new government was thought urgently to 
demand was the abolition of the system of en- 
tails, which, by locking up large and overgrown 
estates in a prescribed and unalterable succes- 
sion, beyond the power of alienation, tended to 
build up a permanent and artificial aristocracy 
in the country. 

In these measures, Mr. Jefferson, who had re- 
signed his seat in the Continental Congress and 
was now a member of the House of Delegates 
for the county of Albemarle, was naturally and 
properly the leader. His generous sentiments 
of liberty, his large philosophic views, the dis- 
tinction he had acquired, both in the colonial 
and continental councils, as a bold and vigorous 
champion of American rights, and the laurels 



LEGISLATIVE REFORMS IN VIRGINIA. 171 

with which he was crowned as the author of the 
Declaration of Independence, rightfully assigned 
him that lead. He and Mr. Madison now, for 
the first time, met. The close intimacy of half 
a century which afterwards subsisted between 
them, — never dimmed by a shade of jealousy or 
coolness, though admitting the utmost freedom, 
and sometimes diversity of opinion, in their fra- 
ternal communications with each other, as we 
shall have occasion to see, — forms a rare exam- 
ple of generous and elevated friendship, amid the 
contentions and vicissitudes of public life, that 
does honor to human nature. 

How entirely Mr. Madison concurred with Mr. 
Jefferson, on the present occasion, in the two 
great measures espoused by the senior states- 
man, the part he had borne in engrafting the 
principle of religious freedom, in its broadest 
latitude, on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, 
as well as the catholic sentiments so nobly ex- 
pressed in his correspondence with Bradford, and 
the high republican tone of his principles mani- 
fested alike in private and in public, furnish the 
fullest assurance. But his youth and diffidence 
prevented him from embarking in a debate, in 
which the "steadfast, able, and zealous" coopera- 
tion of the veteran Mason, — "himself a host," as 
Mr. Jefferson gracefully acknowledges, — rendered 
other allies on the floor of the House super- 
fluous. We cannot forbear to record here what 
Mr. Jefferson, in the brief memoir of his own 



172 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

life, has said of the first appearance in the pub- 
lic councils of the youthful statesman, whose 
modesty, in keeping back, only the more fully 
matured the consummate powers he afterwards 
displayed. 

" Mr. Madison," he says, " came into the House 
in 1776, a new member and young; which cir- 
cumstances, concurring with his extreme modesty, 
prevented his venturing iiimself in debate before 
his removal to the council of state in November, 
1777. From thence he went to Congress, then 
consisting of few members. Trained in these suc- 
cessive schools, he acquired a habit of self-posses- 
sion, which placed at ready command the rich 
resources of his luminous and discriminating mind 
and of his extensive information, and rendered 
him the first of every assembly afterwards of 
which he became a member. Never wandering 
from his subject into vain declamation, but pur- 
suing it closely in language pure, classical, and 
copious, soothing always the feelings of his ad- 
versaries by civilities and softness of expression, 
he rose to the eminent station which he held in 
the great national convention of 1787 ; and in 
that of Virginia, which followed, he sustained the 
new constitution in all its parts, bearing off the 
palm against the logic of George Mason and the 
fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. With these 
consummate powers, was united a pure and spot- 
less virtue, which no calumny has ever attempted 
to sully." 



ABOLITION OF ENTAILS. 173 

The measure brought forward by Mr. Jefferson 
for the abolition of entails was finally carried in 
the form in which he proposed it ; though not 
without earnest opposition from able and honest 
men, whose natural temper and habitual caution 
made them averse to all sudden change. 

On the question of the general and equal ex- 
tension of the benefits of religious freedom, the 
struggle was long and arduous. Finally, it was 
agreed in committee of the whole to repeal all 
laws which restrained, by penal enactments, the 
freedom of religious opinion or worship ; to ex- 
empt dissenters from taxes or contributions for 
the support of the Established Church ; and to 
dispense with any future provision of legal sal- 
aries for ministers, — reserving to the present 
incumbents of parishes the arrears of salaries 
actually due to them, and to them and their 
congregations the use and enjoyment of existing 
glebes, churches, and chapels, with their appen- 
dages. 1 

A select committee of seventeen, of whom Mr. 
Madison was one, together with Mr. Jefferson, 
Mr. Mason, Mr. Nicholas, and others of the older 
members of the House, was appointed to bring 
in a bill in pursuance of the resolutions adopted. 
The bill reported, which soon received the sanc- 
tion of both branches of the legislature and be- 
came a law, embodied all these provisions ; but 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1776, 
pp. 62, 63. 

15* 



174 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

expressly reserved for future determination the 
question of a general assessment for the support 
of religious teachers of the various denominations ; 
and instead of repealing, suspended only the acts 
of Assembly providing salaries for ministers. 1 
This suspension was renewed from session to 
session until 1779, when there was a definitive 
repeal of all laws which provided salaries for 
ministers, and when there was a negative decis- 
ion also on the question of a general assessment. 
But the latter question was, four or five years 
afterwards, revived in a very imposing form, 
under the auspices of venerable and distinguished 
names : and it was reserved for Mr. Madison, as 
we shall see, upon his return into the legislature 
after a service of several years in the national 
councils, to become the powerful and successful 
champion in opposition to it, and to consummate, 
in the maturity of manhood, that great struggle 
for religious freedom in his native State, which 
he commenced a youth. 

With a view to other necessary and yet more 
extensive reforms in the existing legislation of 
the State, and to adapt it to the new republican 
institutions, Mr. Jefferson, at this session of the 
Assembly, proposed the appointment of a com- 
mittee of five persons, to be chosen by joint 
ballot of the two Houses, whose duty it should 
be to revise all the laws of the State, to modify 
and mould them in such manner as they should 

1 Hon. Stat. vol. ix. pp. 164-166. 



REVISION OF THE LAWS. 175 

deem expedient, and to submit them, in the ap- 
propriate form of bills, to the consideration of a 
future legislature. The proposition was adopted ; 
and Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Pendleton, George 
Wythe, George Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee 
were chosen to constitute the committee. The 
work was one of equal difficulty and importance, 
and called for a rare union of industry, skill, 
learning, and practical wisdom. The Herculean 
labor devolved upon the three first>named gen- 
tlemen ; and they submitted the results of it in 
a digest of one hundred and twenty-six bills to 
the General Assembly at the session of May, 
1779. 

The engrossing public cares and events of the 
war prevented any action of the legislature on 
these bills, with the exception of a few of a more 
urgent character, (which were taken up from 
time to time and passed,) until the return of 
peace. Here again it devolved upon Mr. Madi- 
son, at a later period of his career, and in the 
full-grown energy of his powers, to put the fin- 
ishing hand to labors of patriotism and wisdom, 
at whose inception he had assisted with the 
modest intelligence of the youthful but well- 
trained statesman. Mr. Jefferson, in the auto- 
biographical memoir already referred to, says : 
u The main body of the work " (the report of 
the revisers) "was not entered on by the legis- 
lature until after the general peace, in 1785, 
when, by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madi- 



176 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

son, in opposition to the endless quibbles, chi- 
caneries, perversions, and delays of lawyers and 
demi-lawyers, most of the bills were passed by 
the legislature with little alteration." 

Various other measures, connected with the 
internal policy of the State and demanded for 
its o-ood government, were matured and adopted 
by this Assembly ; but the increasing urgency of 
the national clanger at length summoned its ear- 
nest attention to measures, of which all America 
was the object. The American army, after the 
forced abandonment of New York, was rapidly 
reduced in numbers by successive though not 
decisive actions, by the loss of Fort Washington 
and its numerous garrison, and, more than all, 
by the discouragement and expiring terms of 
service of large bodies of troops. In this state 
of things, the commander-in-chief found it neces- 
sary to pass to the other side of the Hudson, 
and finally to retreat to the banks of the Dela- 
ware, where, when he arrived, his whole force 
had dwindled to less than three thousand men, 
in the face of a numerous and well-appointed 
foe. 

The General Assembly of Virginia had already 
provided for a large increase of its military es- 
tablishment, both for State and continental ser- 
vice : but when this intelligence reached it, 
measures were instantly taken to send on rein- 
forcements to the continental army, and to stim- 
ulate, by every possible means, the recruiting of 



REINFORCEMENTS SENT TO THE ARMY. 177 

new levies. On the 20th of December, a few 
days only after the retreat of the army to the 
banks of the Delaware, and under the impression 
of that disastrous news, — rendered yet more pain- 
ful by the inexplicable capture of General Lee, 
— the House of Delegates resolved itself into a 
committee of the whole to take into considera- 
tion "the state of America" (the usual formula 
was the "state of the country"). On the follow- 
ing day, the committee reported a series of reso- 
lutions which were immediately adopted by the 
House, evincing the deep sense that was felt of 
the gravity of the crisis, and the prompt deter- 
mination of Virginia to bear her full share of 
its burdens and perils. 

Nothing, perhaps, marks more strongly the 
readiness to make every sacrifice to the common 
cause, than that the representatives of the peo- 
ple, — with all the jealous} 7 then felt in Virginia 
of executive power, and which was engraven 
upon the front of the political institutions she 
had just adopted, 1 • — invested the governor and 
council with unlimited power to call forth any 
amount of military force they should judge ne- 
cessary and proper, in addition to that already 

1 Besides the jealous limitation the government to which I have 

of executive power in the constitu- been elected, at the several peri- 

tion itself, the governor was re- ods to which my continuance in 

quired, in the oath of office pre- the said office is or shall be limited 

scribed to be taken by him, to by law and the constitution." See 

" solemnly promise and swear that this form of oath in Ordinances of 

I will peaceably and quietly resign Convention of 1776, p. 7. 



178 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

provided by law ; to determine its destination, 
whether " to join the continental army or to 
march to the assistance of any of our sister 
States"; and to provide for its pay, equipment, 
and support by a carte blanche to draw upon the 
treasury. The governor was requested to trans- 
mit, by express, copies of these resolves to the 
neighbouring States of Maryland and North Car- 
olina, " in order to satisfy them," as the Assembly 
declared, " that we are exerting ourselves in de- 
fending the liberties of America " ; and at the 
same time, a resolution was adopted, instructing 
the delegates of Virginia in Congress to recom- 
mend to that body the expediency of " investing 
the commander-in-chief of the American forces 
with more ample and extensive powers for con- 
ducting the operations of the war," and to use 
their influence also " in exhorting the legislatures 
of the several States to adopt the most speedy 
and effectual methods for calling their military 
force into action." 1 

Congress, — which had then removed from Phil- 
adelphia to Baltimore, — on the 27th of December, 
six days after the recommendation of the legis-, 
lature of Virginia, passed a resolution conferring 
the proposed enlargement of powers on the com- 
mander-in-chief. Only the day before the adop- 
tion of this resolution, but too recently to be 
known to Congress at the time of its passage, 

1 For these various proceedings, see Journal of House of Delegates, 
October session, 1776, pp. 106-108. 



MR. MADISON NOT RE-ELECTED. 179 

Washington, by one of the boldest and most 
brilliant coups dc main on record, and which 
showed that he was Marcellus or Fabius by 
turns, as the interests of the great cause commit- 
ted to his hands required, recrossed the Dela- 
ware, and, by an impetuous onset, captured a 
large detachment of the enemy's army at Tren- 
ton ; — a 'success which he followed up a few days 
afterwards, with equal brilliancy and spirit, by 
another at Princeton, enabling him to resume a 
position, if not of equality, yet of confidence and 
self-reliance, face to face with the hosts that 
stood opposed to him. 

On the day of their proceedings mentioned 
above, the General Assembly of Virginia ad- 
journed, after a laborious and most important 
session of three months. At that time its meet- 
ings were semi-annual, — in May and in October. 
A new election of delegates took place annu- 
ally in April. At the ensuing election of 1777, 
Mr. Madison was outvoted by candidates who 
brought to their aid a species of influence un- 
fortunately not uncommon in that day, but 
against which he was firmly principled. The 
practice of treating at elections was one which, in 
England, had long and rankly flourished in spite 
of prohibitory enactments ; and it had been trans- 
planted, with the representative institutions which 
it tended to vitiate and corrupt, to the virgin 
soil of the new world. Mr. Madison, believing, 
to use his own language, that "the reputation 



180 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

and success of representative government de- 
pended on the purity of popular elections," re- 
solved to give no countenance to a practice 
which he deemed so destructive of it ; and he 
declined, therefore, to follow the example of his 
competitors in courting the suffrages of the elec- 
tors by offering them treats. He fell a victim, 
as others have done before and since, to the in- 
flexibility of his principles ; but his self-respect 
raised him above the mortification of defeat. In 
a paper containing some reflections on the im- 
portance of maintaining the purity of popular 
elections, he has incidentally given an account 
of this early experience of his political life, which 
we cannot do better than to present in his own 
words to the reader. 

"In Virginia, where the elections to the colo- 
nial legislature were septennial, and the original 
settlers of the prevailing sentiments and manners 
of the parent nation, the modes of canvassing 
for popular votes in that country were generally 
practised. The people not only tolerated, but 
expected and even required to be courted and 
treated. No candidate, who neglected those at- 
tentions, could be elected. His forbearance would 
have been ascribed to a mean parsimony, or to 
a proud disrespect for the voters. 

"The spirit of the Revolution and the adop- 
tion of annual elections seeming to favor a more 
chaste mode of conducting elections in Virginia, 
my way of thinking on the subject determined 



VINDICATES PURITY OF ELECTIONS. 181 

me to attempt, by an example, to introduce it. 
It was found that the old habits were too deeply 
rooted to be suddenly reformed. Particular cir- 
cumstances obtained for me success in the first 
election, at which I was a candidate. At the 
next, I was outvoted by two candidates, neither 
of them having superior pretensions, and one 
particularly deficient in them ; but both of them 
availing themselves of all the means of influence 
familiar to the people. My reserve was imputed 
to want of respect for them, if to no other un- 
popular motive." 

It is gratifying to know that the fellow-citizens 
of Mr. Madison, who appreciated at their just 
value the gradually unfolding talents and virtues 
of their young countyman, did not tamely ac- 
quiesce in the loss of his services to the public 
cause by means so unworthy. A petition of 
"sundry freeholders of the county of Orange" 
was presented to the House of Delegates at its 
succeeding session, complaining of the corrupt 
influence through which one of the neAV dele- 
gates, by whom Mr. Madison had been super- 
seded, was elected, and praying that "the said 
election be set aside." The petition was referred 
to the committee of privileges and elections ; but 
for the want of adequate proof to sustain the 
allegations of the petition, which in such cases 
it is extremely difficult to obtain with the requi- 
site precision, the proceeding was unavailing, ex- 
cept as a perpetual protest upon the legislative 

VOL. I. 16 



182 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

records of the country against a dangerous abuse, 
of which one of her sons, so well qualified to 
serve her, and destined to be one of her chief 
ornaments, was the early though temporary vic- 
tim. 1 

Unambitious and retiring as the youthful 
statesman was, his merits were too well known 
to those with whom he had been associated in 
the public service to allow his ostracism to be 
of long duration. At the autumnal session of 
the legislature in this same year, (on the 13th 
of November, 1777,) he was chosen by the joint 
ballot of the two Houses to be a member of 
the Council of State. This body, under the new 
constitution, as has been already stated, consisted 
of eight members, who participated with the gov- 
ernor in the exercise of all the executive powers 
of the government, and without whose "advice" 
he could perform no official act. In the earlier 
times of the new government, none but such as 
were distinguished for patriotism, talents, and in- 
fluence were chosen into the .Council of State. 2 

i Journal of'House of Delegates, was chosen into the same body. 

May session, 1777, pp. 14 and G7. The passage is curious also as a 

2 A striking illustration of the reminiscence of a distinguished 

opinion formerly entertained of public character : " Young Mr. 

the mature qualifications suitable Marshall is elected a Councillor in 

for a member of the executive the room of Mr. Bannister, who 

council, is found in a letter of resigned. He is clever, but I think 

Judge Pendleton to Mr. Madison, too young for that department, 

dated the 25th of November, 1 782, which he should rather have earn- 

mentioning the election of young ed as a retirement and reward, by 

Mr. Marshall, (afterwards Chief ten or twelve years hard service in 

j„ s , i,. e ,) — at that time a year older the Assembly." Manuscript Let- 

than Mr. Madison was, when he ter. 



CHOSEN INTO THE COUNCIL OF STATE. 183 

Among those who, at this time, held seats in 
that body were John Page, Dudley Digges, and 
Dr. Thomas Walker, all of whom had been mem- 
bers of the general committee of safety; and 
with them were John Blair, Nathaniel Harrison, 
and others well known by their public charac- 
ters. It is a farther and flattering proof of the 
consideration entertained for Mr. Madison at this 
time in the General Assembly, that he was nom- 
inated for his new post without his knowledge 
or wish ; and was elected by a handsome major- 
ity, though brought into competition with such 
men as Meriwether Smith, John Bannister, and 
Lewis Burwell, all his seniors, and of long estab- 
lished reputation. 1 

The governor and council, in addition to the 
regular executive functions devolved upon them 
by the constitution, were now invested, by spe- 
cial acts of the legislature, with extraordinary 
powers of great delicacy and importance, adapted 
to a state of war and the critical posture of 
public affairs, — as we have seen in the instance 
of the resolutions adopted by the Assembly just 
a }^ear ago. The same powers, substantially, 
were renewed from session to session, during the 
continuance of the public danger. 

The moment at which Mr. Madison came into 
the body, was one full of urgency and interest. 
The general elation produced by the splendid 
success of Saratoga was naturally mingled with 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1777, pp. 24, 25. 



184 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

a feeling of depression at the occupation of Phil- 
adelphia by the enemy, and with painful anxiety 
for the situation of the patriot army in its win- 
ter quarters at Valley Forge. As the seat of 
war, too, was gradually being transferred more 
to the South, the state of things demanded more 
and more of vigilance hi that direction, and gave 
increased importance to the powers, both ordi- 
nary and extraordinary, with which the executive 
of Virginia was clothed. 

It was, perhaps, a providential event in Mr. 
Madison's career that he was removed from a 
numerous, popular assembly, where his natural 
diffidence would have long withheld him from 
any active participation in its proceedings and 
debates, to a smaller and more quiet body, 
whose deliberations being of a less formal char- 
acter, — uniting the ease of colloquial with the 
earnestness, occasionally, of forensic discussion, — 
he was drawn out, from time to time, to take 
part in them. He thus gradually acquired a 
habit of self-possession in the enunciation of his 
views, which was alone wanting to make him as 
lucid and powerful in debate, as he was clear 
and profound in thought, and copious and over- 
flowing in information. The council chamber, in 
this manner, became to him, not only a scene 
of useful and patriotic labor, but a school of 
training which prepared him for some of the 
highest and most enduring triumphs of his 
public life. 



tribute: to his worth and talents. 185 

We cannot forbear introducing here, as an 
ingenuous tribute to the blended modesty and 
worth of the new councillor of State, an extract 
from a letter addressed to him, soon after his 
election, by one of his early college friends, the 
Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, who, a native son 
of Pennsylvania, was now the president of Hamp- 
den Sidney College in Virginia. 

" This is the first time I have had an oppor- 
tunity to write to you since your election to 
your new and honorable office. I rejoice that 
your country has been able, in spite of all your 
modesty, to discern your merit, and that she has 
had virtue enough to place you in a station 
where your talents will not be useless to her; 
although I could wish you had the same opinion 
of yourself that others have, and then I confess 
I should be glad to see you a degree or two 
lower, but where your services would be more 
important. For I am really afraid that the 
Assembly doth not sufficiently consult her own 
dignity, while so many of her most deserving 
members are distributed among the honorable 
and profitable offices of State, and so few are 
left who can give a lustre to her councils, or 
authority to her decisions, or even, perhaps, 
guide her deliberations with regularity and pru- 
dence. You are better acquainted, however, what 
reason there is to fear any loss of dignity in 
our own legislature, or in our representation in 
the Congress of the States." 

16* 



186 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

This passage forms only the introduction to 
a letter of some twenty pages, in which the 
learned writer submits to the criticism and re- 
vision of his friend his matured and profoundly 
meditated views on a great question of moral 
and intellectual philosophy, — the long contro- 
verted one of the freedom or fatalism of human 
actions. They are, in substance, the same which 
were, many years after, embodied by him in his 
Lectures on Philosophy, when president of Prince- 
ton College. 1 Dr. Smith was the eloquent and 
able champion of free agency; and in the letter 
to Mr. Madison, he has discussed the subject 
with a depth of learning and reflection, , and in 
some respects with an originality of views, which 
we have never seen surpassed. It is no small 
proof of Mr. Madison's proficiency in metaphys- 
ical studies, to which we have heretofore alluded, 
that so profound a thinker should have sought 
his judgment upon the result of his meditations. 

The letter proceeds : " Perhaps it may prove 
a relaxation to you, in the midst of other busi- 
ness, to attend to a few metaphysical specula- 
tions. I would not have troubled you on such 
subjects, if I had not known your taste for 
them, and your quick discernment of every error 
or mistake, and even of every hint that may 
lead to the discovery of truth. I promise my- 
self this benefit at least, that I shall see some 

1 See Lectures on Moral and Political Philosophy by Dr. Samuel 
Stanhope Smith, vol. I. p. 275. 



REV. SAMUEL STANHOPE SMITH. ] 87 

mistakes or superficial reasonings that I am 
not aware of at present, and that I may re- 
ceive some clue that may serve to exercise my 
thoughts anew, and lead to a more perfect 
investigation of the truth. 

" You have frequently attacked me on that 
knotty question of liberty and necessity, that 
has so much embarrassed philosophers, and has 
raised such furious war among divines. 1 have 
lately had occasion to write on several philo- 
sophical subjects, and among others, on this 
question. I send you the result of my thoughts 
upon it ; not at length, but with the utmost 
conciseness I am able, knowing that you are so 
well acquainted with the subject, that it is suffi- 
cient barely to state my opinion, without any 
long detail of the reasonings that support it, 
which are apt to grow tedious, where they are 
not necessary. I write with the prospect of my 
own improvement and not of your information ; 
and, therefore, beg in return your candid an- 
imadversions on my scheme, with your own 
thoughts on the same subject," 

We have not the answer of Mr. Madison, 
which could not foil to interest philosophical 
inquirers; but the tenor of it may be inferred 
from a subsequent letter of Dr. Smith, in which 
he says : — 

" I have read over your theoretical objections 
against the doctrine of moral liberty, for prac- 
tically you seem to be one of its disciples. T 



188 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

remember the manner in which you have for- 
merly expressed yourself upon that intricate sub- 
ject ; and, indeed, they express the difficulties 
that occurred to me in attempting to solve it." 

It is a spectacle refreshing to humanity to see 
two such minds turning away, for the moment, 
from the exciting controversies of international 
war to explore, by the calm lights of philosophy, 
a question concerning the moral destinies of man. 
But our particular purpose in referring to this 
correspondence was to exhibit Mr. Madison's 
early familiarity with those abstract truths that 
lie at the basis of all systems of human govern- 
ment and legislation, and that gave a breadth 
and comprehensiveness to his views, which, united 
with practical sagacity and wisdom, raised him 
to the exalted rank he was destined to occupy 
among the statesmen of America and the world. 

Mr. Henry was in the second year of his ad- 
ministration as governor of Virginia, when Mr. 
Madison took his seat in the Council of State as 
one of his constitutional advisers and assistants. 
These two gentlemen, who in after-times were 
to be placed in such marked opposition to each 
other on public questions of the greatest mo- 
ment, had already met in the convention of 
1776, of which they were both, as we have seen, 
members. But the difference of years, with the 
natural modesty and reserve of Mr. Madison, 
probably rendered their acquaintance at that 
time a slight one. They were now brought into 



RELATIONS WITH GOVERNOR HENRY. 189 

closer relations; and it is gratifying to know 
that sentiments of cordial respect and esteem 
soon sprang up between them. The amiable 
and ingenuous disposition for which Mr. Madison 
was always distinguished, and which formed so 
fitting an ornament of his youthful talents, could 
not but commend him to the regard of Mr. 
Henry. 

It so happened, too, that he was the only 
member of the Executive Council, at that time, 
who was versed in foreign languages ; and the 
number of foreign officers then in the service 
of the country, Virginia particularly, and in con- 
stant communication with the executive, — to- 
gether with other occasions, occurring from time 
to time, to maintain a correspondence with foreign 
states or their agents, — made it indispensable for 
the governor often to call in the aid of the youth- 
ful and accomplished councillor. 1 These occasions 

1 Mr. Madison used to relate, as with the most obvious and familiar 

a ludicrous instance of the tenacity usages of representative govern- 

with which the French, in the com- ment. One of them, attending a 

mencement of their intercourse session of the House of Delegates, 

with us, transferred the forms and discovered much curiosity to know 

traditions of their monarchical re- by what right and for what end 

gime to the unaccustomed republi- the Speaker seemed to be invested 

can institutions of America, that with a supreme control over the 

letters were not unfrequently ad- order of proceedings in the body, 

dressed to the governor as " Son After listening very earnestly to 

Altesse Royale, Monsieur Patrick the explanation given, to wit, that 

Henri, Gouverneur de PEtat de the Speaker was the presiding offi- 

Virginie." He related also the cer, chosen by the body itself, to 

following anecdote as illustrative maintain order and decorum in its 

of the total want of acquaintance proceedings by enforcing conform- 

of our Gallic friends, at that day, ity to certain established rules, he 



190 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

were so frequent that the legislature, at a sub- 
sequent session, provided specially for the estab- 
lishment of an office of foreign correspondence. 1 
But Mr. Madison's personal and confidential aid 
was always freely given at the call of the gov- 
ernor ; and his general skill and facility as a 
writer, concurring with the governor's known 
aversion to the labors of the pen, caused his aid 
to be so frequently sought in the preparation of 
other papers, as well as the foreign correspond- 
ence, that he bore with many the title of Secre- 
tary, as well as Councillor of State. 2 

Among the most urgent of the duties incum- 
bent at this time upon the governor and coun- 
cil was the execution of the measures adopted 
by the legislature, at their late session, for com- 
pleting the State's quota of troops for the conti- 
nental service, and for contributing its aid, in 
every possible mode, to an early and vigorous 
commencement of the next campaign. For these 
purposes, new recruits were to be raised, and in 
default of them, drafts to be made from the 
militia; volunteers, also, were to be encouraged, 
embodied, and officered ; and arms, accoutrements, 
clothing, and provisions of every kind, to be 
obtained and distributed for the supply of the 

exclaimed, with an air of sudden the authority of Mr. Jefferson, who 

illumination and satisfaction, " En- often related them in conversation 

fin, Monsieur, Je vous comprends ; with his friends.— See also Camp- 

c'est uu Prince du Sang ! " bell's Introduction to the History 

1 See Hen. Stat. vol. IX. p. 467. of Virginia, p. 167. 

9 These facts are stated upon 



TROOPS FOR THE GENERAL DEFENCE. 191 

troops. It is an honorable proof of the para- 
mount regard for the common cause, which then 
actuated the councils of Virginia, that troops, 
raised for her special protection, were ordered at 
once into the continental service. 

The language of loyalty to the general inter- 
est of the confederacy in which the legislature 
prefaced the provision for raising volunteers, over 
and above the legal quota of troops which the 
State was bound to furnish, deserves also to be 
cited. " Whereas," say they, " it is of the greatest 
importance to the American cause to open the next 
campaign as early as possible ; and, in order to 
render its operations more decisive and effectual, 
that the army under the command of his excel- 
lency General Washington should be reinforced 
by an additional number of troops to be raised 
for that purpose in this Commonwealth": They 
then proceed to offer special inducements to vol- 
unteers to engage in this service, and confer upon 
the governor and council the necessary powers 
for appointing the higher officers, organizing the 
troops, and bringing them into the field. 1 

Mr. Madison, who had just then assumed his 
place in the Council of State, took the liveliest 
personal concern in the successful execution of 
these various measures. His father was still the 
county lieutenant of Orange ; but having reached 
an age when the duties of the office were felt 
to be burdensome to declining years, he wished 

1 See Hen. Stat. vol. ix. pp. 345-348. 



192 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

to relieve himself of them in favor of a succes- 
sor, who should he younger and more capable 
of exertion. Mr. Madison, apprised of his father's 
wishes, addressed to him, in a letter from Wil- 
liamsburg dated the 23d of Januar}^, 1778, the 
following respectful remonstrance. 

"Although I well know how inconvenient and 
disagreeable it is to you to continue to act as 
the lieutenant of the county, I cannot help in- 
forming you that a resignation at this juncture 
is here supposed to have a very unfriendly aspect 
on the execution of the draft, and, consequently, 
to betray at least a want of patriotism and per- 
severance. This is so much the case, that a 
recommendation of a county lieutenant this clay 
received by the governor, to supply the place 
of one who had resigned to the court, produced 
a private verbal message to the old lieutenant 
to continue to act, at least as long as the pres- 
ent measures were in execution." 

This filial appeal to paternal patriotism was not 
unheeded; and Colonel Madison continued with 
unremitting zeal to perform the duties of com- 
manding officer of his county. 

An act was passed at the late session of the 
legislature which empowered the governor and 
council, in case of the invasion, or apprehended 
invasion (as a subsequent act provided), of "any 
sister State," to order to their assistance such 
corps of the militia as the exigencies of the 
case should seem to the executive to require. 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE. 193 

The preamble to this act contains another noble 
expression of the comprehensive national spirit 
that, in advance of any positive compact, ani- 
mated the bosom of Virginia, at this great epoch, 
to exert herself for the common cause, — an 
example which in these days of family feud 
and mutual alienation, it is refreshing to recall. 
u Whereas," say the legislature of that day, " the 
present war between America and Great Britain 
was undertaken for the defence of the common 
rights of the American States, and it is, there- 
fore, just that each of them, when in danger, 
should be aided by the joint exertions of all," 
&c. ; and then follows the full discretionary au- 
thority to the governor and council to send mil- 
itary assistance to a any sister State " invaded or 
threatened with invasion. 1 

By another act of the legislature, passed at the 
same session, powers were conferred on the gov- 
ernor and council that led to one of the most 
daring and brilliant military enterprises recorded 
in the annals of individual or national hardi- 
hood, of which the results were of the highest 
importance to Virginia and the whole confeder- 
acy. The frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylva- 
nia had been for a long time exposed to san- 
guinary and desolating incursions of the Indians, 
which were fomented and encouraged mainly by 
the British military posts in the Northwest. A 
bold and adventurous spirit, George Rogers Clarke, 

i See Hen. Stat. vol. ix. pp. 428 and 477. 
VOL. i. 17 



194 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

a native of Albemarle county in Virginia, inured 
to scenes of pioneer life, conceived the hardy 
project of extinguishing these savage cruelties 
in their source, by striking a blow at once at 
the enemy's posts on the waters of the Missis- 
sippi. 

An act was accordingly passed which author- 
ized the " Governor, with the advice of the Privy 
Council," to organize an expedition " to march 
against and attack any of our Western enemies," 
to appoint the proper officers, and give the 
necessary orders for the expedition. 1 A force 
of only two or three hundred men could be 
raised, which was placed under the command of 
the dauntless and sagacious genius that had sug- 
gested the enterprise. With this small but he- 
roic band, he plunged into the Western forest, 
traversed the Alleghanies, descended the Ohio 
in rude and frail barks, and penetrating thence 
through a difficult and almost impassable region 
of swamps and floods, appeared before the Brit- 
ish fort of Kaskaskias on the borders of the 
Mississippi, surprised and captured it, though de- 
fended by greatly superior numbers, and then, 
without allowing a moment's pause for either 
repose on the one hand, or alarm on the other, 
successively reduced several others of the ene- 
my's posts. This sudden and miraculous con- 
quest, — superadding a new title to her chartered 
rights, — secured to Virginia the ready allegiance 

1 See Hen. Stat. vol. ix. p. 375. 



CAPTURE OF FORT VINCENNES. 195 

of the inhabitants ; and at the following session 
of the legislature, an act was passed for incor- 
porating into her government the whole country 
between the Ohio and the Mississippi, under the 
name of the county of Illinois. 1 

At the same time, a resolution of thanks to 
the brave commander and his companions in 
arms was adopted, reciting that "whereas Lieu- 
tenantrColonel George Rogers Clarke, with a 
body of Virginia militia, has reduced the British 
posts in the western part of this Commonwealth 
on the River Mississippi and its branches, where- 
by great advantages may accrue to the common 
cause of America, as well as to this Common- 
wealth," he and the valiant officers and men 
under his command justly merit " the thanks of 
this Assembly for their extraordinary resolution 
and perseverance in so hazardous an enterprise, 
and for the important services they have ren- 
dered their country." 2 Stimulated by the meed 
of his country's applause, this gallant and daring 
commander, with a yet smaller band of heroic 
followers, some months afterwards, (the 24th of 
February, 1779,) eclipsed even his former achieve- 
ments by the capture, against every possible 
odds of fortune, as well as the most formidable 
obstacles of nature, of Fort Vincennes on the 
Wabash. With its garrison, he took prisoner 
the governor of Detroit, Hamilton, the odious 

1 See Hen. Stat. vol. ix. p. 552. 

2 Journal of House of Delegates of the 23d of November, 1778. 



196 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

patron and instigator of Indian barbarities, whose 
treatment, under the laws of war, subsequently 
gave rise to extremely delicate and important 
questions for the consideration of the governor 
and council of Virginia, and of the commander- 
in-chief of the army. 1 

In recurring to the contemporaneous progress 
of the. general contest, we find the first year of 
Mr. Madison's connection with the executive of 
Virginia attended by a mixture of political and 
military events of the highest interest on the 
national theatre. So decisive an advantage as 
that achieved by the American arms in the cap- 
ture of Burgoyne's army, in the autumn of 1777, 
could not but inspire with new confidence the 
governments of Europe, who were disposed to 
regard with sympathy and encouragement the 
transatlantic struggle for independence. In Feb- 
ruary, 1778, France concluded treaties both of 
friendship and commerce, and of alliance, with 
the United States. This event was hailed with 
universal joy in America. The news of it was 
received early in May, and was followed by 
public demonstrations of the national feeling, in 
which the army bore an imposing part. 

One of the earliest consequences of this event 
was the evacuation of Philadelphia by the ene- 
my's forces. Sir Henry Clinton was justly ap- 
prehensive that the arrival of a French fleet in 

1 See Writings of Jefferson, vol. I. pp. 168-171, and 451-459. 
Also Sparks's Washington, vol. vi. pp. 315-317, and 407. 



BATTLE OF MONMOUTH. 197 

the Delaware, if not forestalled, might finally 
cut off his retreat, and literally fulfil what Dr. 
Franklin had said on first hearing the news of 
the hostile occupation of Philadelphia : " Say not 
that the British army has taken Philadelphia, 
but rather that Philadelphia has taken the Brit- 
ish army." On the morning of the 18th of 
June, the British commander withdrew from 
Philadelphia, and commenced his long and toil- 
some march through the Jerseys. On the 29th 
instant he was brought to action in the memora- 
ble and glorious field of Monmouth, where the 
roused lion of Washington's nature again broke 
forth with irresistible energy, and in spite of the 
reluctant and faltering cooperation on the part 
of the general next in command to himself, he 
remained in possession of the field of battle. 1 

Sir Henry Clinton continued his retreat, and 
arrived with his shattered forces in New York 
the very day that the French fleet under Count 
d'Estaing made its appearance on the American 
coast. An unfortunate failure of the neces- 
sary concert between the naval force of Count 
d'Estaing and the American land forces, in a 
combined attack on the enemy's position in 

1 Lafayette, speaking of the sa presence d'esprit ne furent ja- 

bearing of Washington in the bat- mais mieux deploye'es." Me'moires 

tie of Monmouth, says : " Dans de Lafayette, vol. i. p. 53. See 

cette affaire, mal preparee, mais his graphic letter to Judge Mar- 

bien finie, le General Washington shall, to the same effect, in Life 

Bembla d'un coup d'oeil arreter la of AVashington, vol. I. p. 255. 
fortune ; et sa noblesse, sa grace, 

17* 



198 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Rhode Island, prematurely terminated the cam- 
paign. 

In the midst of these events, a paltry but 
persevering attempt at reconciliation was set on 
foot by the British ministry. The news of Bur- 
goyne's surrender had produced as much morti- 
fication and dejection in the councils of England, 
as it had given confidence and boldness to the 
policy of France. The prime minister, Lord 
North, it has been said, even wept in announc- 
ing the intelligence to the House of Commons. 1 
After appealing to the patriotism and loyalty of 
the people of England for voluntary succours, he 
brought in three bills, commonly known by the 
name of the "conciliatory bills;" two of which 
virtually retracted all the claims of parliamen- 
tary power, in which the revolutionary contro- 
versy had its origin, and the third provided for 
the appointment of commissioners who should be 
duly authorized to treat and agree to a pacifica- 
tion on that basis. The whole scheme, however, 
proceeded on the assumption that the American 
States were to return to their colonial depend- 
ence upon the British crown. 

Copies of these bills were sent to America, as 
soon as they were introduced, — and before they 
could be passed through the necessary forms of 
legislation, — in the hope that they might have 
the effect of preventing the consummation of the 
alliance with France. Governor Tryon addressed 

l Belsham, History of Great Britain, vol. vi. pp. 334, 335. 



CONDUCT OF ROYAL COMMISSIONERS. 199 

them to General Washington, by whom they 
were immediately laid before Congress. That 
body promptly and unanimously resolved that 
they would hold no conference or treaty with 
any commissioners on the part of Great Britain, 
unless they should, as a preliminary, either with- 
draw their fleets and armies, or acknowledge, in 
positive and express terms, the independence of 
the States. These proceedings took place on 
the 22d of April, 1778; and were ordered, to- 
gether with copies of the proposed bills, to be 
forthwith promulgated to the public. They were 
adopted in entire ignorance of the conclusion of 
the treaties with France, which did not arrive 
until a fortnight afterwards, when they were 
instantly and unanimously ratified by Congress. 

The royal commissioners, Lord Carlisle, Gover- 
nor Johnstone, and Mr. Eden (afterwards Lord 
Auckland), arrived in Philadelphia about the 1st 
of June, and addressed a communication to Con- 
gress, setting forth, in specious and glozing 
terms, the objects of their mission. To this 
communication Congress returned the answer 
they had already given, when the copies of the 
"conciliatory bills" were first laid before them, 
but in yet more decisive and emphatic language. 
The commissioners still continued their efforts ; 
one of them superadding the attempt to influ- 
ence individual members by sordid and dishonor- 
able approaches. Finally, it was determined to 
hold no farther correspondence with them. 



200 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Repulsed by the inflexible firmness of Congress, 
they published a manifesto which was designed 
to operate, more particularly, on the Assemblies 
of the respective States. After repeating the 
various considerations which seemed to them so 
strongly to invite an acceptance of the insidious 
propositions with which they were charged, they 
concluded their appeal by declaring that if the 
American people should persist in rejecting these 
propositions and adhering to the connection they 
had formed with the ancient enemy of both coun- 
tries, it would be the policy of the British gov- 
ernment to render that connection as little 
profitable as possible to her adversary by hence- 
forward waging a war of desolation upon the 
country. 

So shameless and revolting a declaration, which 
it is gratifying to know met with a scathing re- 
buke from the honorable and high-minded men 
who formed the opposition in both Houses of 
Parliament, aroused one deep and universal feel- 
ing of indignant scorn and defiance throughout 
America. The commissioners made an insolent 
attempt to convey copies of their manifesto to 
the State governments under the protection of 
(lags of truce. In Virginia, the legislature, on 
being informed by the governor that a British 
officer, bearing this obnoxious message, had ar- 
rived at Fort Henry with despatches from the 
enemy, which the commanding officer of the fort 
had refused to receive, adopted a resolution ex- 



OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 201 

pressing in warm terms their approbation of the 
conduct of the commander of the fort, and 
instructing him to order the officer, charged 
with the despatches, immediately to depart from 
the State, and to inform him that, in future, any 
person making a like attempt should be treated 
as an enemy to America. 1 Thus ended, in dis- 
comfiture and disgrace to the British missionaries 
and their patrons at home, the political cam- 
paign of 1778, which had gone on hand in hand 
with the military. 

The year 1779 opened with a new system of 
operations on the part of the enemy. Foiled in 
all their attempts to effect any general occupa- 
tion of the country in the face of the American 
army at the North, their attention was now 
turned to the South, where the comparative 
sparseness of the population and the absence of 
military preparation and organization opened to 
them an easier and less obstructed field for their 
operations. An expedition set on foot from New 
York, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Campbell, attended by a squadron under Com- 
modore Hyde Parker, had taken possession of 
Savannah, and being soon afterwards joined by 
a larger force from East Florida under the com- 
mand of Major-General Prevost, the State of 
Georgia was speedily reduced, and South Caro- 
lina seriously threatened. 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, under date of the 17th of 
October, 1778. 



202 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

In the month of May, Virginia was honored 
with a visit from the enemy. An expedition of 
two thousand men under General Matthew, con- 
voyed by the British admiral, Sir George Collier, 
in person, made its appearance in Hampton Roads 
on the 9th of that month. There being no force 
collected to resist them but the small garrison 
of Fort Nelson, they landed without difficulty, 
destroyed the stores accumulated at Portsmouth 
and Gosport, burnt the little town of Suffolk, 
and rioted in the wanton destruction of private 
as well as public property for a week or two, 
when they returned, with such inglorious laurels 
as plunder and devastation could give them, to 
the common rendezvous at New York. 

At the time of this invasion, there was in the 
neighbourhood of Williamsburg a force of two 
thousand men which had been raised in Virginia 
for the continental service, and which was now 
momentarily detained from its destination, in con- 
sequence of the irruption of the enemy. On the 
20th of the month, however, the House of Dele- 
gates passed a resolution that the march of these 
recruits, which had been ordered by Congress to 
the South, should not be delayed for the pur- 
poses of the State ; whose immediate defence, it 
was declared, should rest on its own militia and 
regular troops. At the same time, the governor 
and council were requested to urge forward the 
march of that portion of the militia of the State 
which had been already drafted for the succour 



JEFFERSON, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 203 

of South Carolina. In the midst of her own 
dangers, Virginia did not forget her obligations 
to her sister States and to the common cause. 1 

With these events, terminated the administra- 
tion of Mr. Henry as governor of Virginia. He 
had fulfilled, under successive annual elections, 
the whole term of service (three years) admitted 
lyy the provisions of the constitution ; and Mr. 
Jefferson was now chosen his successor. Mr. 
Madison continued a member of the Executive 
Council a few months more, under the new ad- 
ministration ; and the close and more intimate 
association, commencing in this branch of the 
public service of their native State, laid the 
foundation of that long and unbroken friendship 
which united these illustrious men in all the 
trials of their future lives, and attended them to 
the close of their career. 

The day after Mr. Jefferson's election, a reso- 
lution of an unusual and anomalous character 
was adopted by the legislature of Virginia, It 
served, however, to evince her earnest attach- 
ment to the common cause, and a strong de- 
termination to defeat the machinations of its 
adversaries, whether foreign or domestic. In the 
insidious efforts made, during the last year, to 
regain for England her lost American empire, it 
was frequently insinuated by the royal commis- 
sioners that the ratification of the French alli- 
ance by Congress was not binding upon the 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, May session, 1779, p. 15. 



204 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

national faith, as the articles of confederation, 
which gave to that body authority to conclude 
treaties with foreign powers, had not received 
the confirmation of all the States, which was 
made necessary to their validity. Maryland had 
not yet given her signature to them ; whereby 
the compact remained without full binding force 
upon any of the parties. 

It Avas in this state of things that Virginia, 
with the view of cutting off pernicious intrigues, 
whether from within or without, to detach her 
from the French alliance, or to seduce any por- 
tion of her people by the dangerous and delu- 
sive project of a separate arrangement with. the 
enemy, which the terms of the alliance expressly 
forbade, determined to silence at once all cavils 
as to the obligation of the treaty, so far as she 
was concerned, by a formal ratification of it by 
her own act and in her own name. Accordingly, 
on the 2d day of June, 1779, a resolution was 
passed by the legislature, nemine conlraciicente, de- 
claring that " the treaties of alliance and com- 
merce between His Most Christian Majesty of 
France on the one part, and the Congress of the 
United States of America on the other part, 
ought to be ratified and confirmed, so far as is 
in the power of this Commonwealth, and the 
same are hereby ratified, confirmed, and declared 
binding on this Commonwealth." The governor 
was, at the same time, requested " to notify to 
the minister of His Most Christian Majesty, resi- 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN. 205 

dent at Philadelphia, the above ratification under 
the seal of the Commonwealth. 1 This proceed- 
ing, — doubtless an irregularity in a diplomatic 
and political sense, — stands redeemed to every 
ingenuous mind by the loyal motives of national 
honor and inflexible patriotism which dictated it. 
It was the earnest desire both of France and 
the United States to secure the cooperation of 
Spain in the contest now waging against the 
vast military and naval power of England. Over- 
tures were early made by Congress through Dr. 
Franklin at Versailles, who addressed a letter on 
the subject to Count d'Aranda, the Spanish min- 
ister at the same court ; and more recently, 
Mr. Arthur Lee had been accredited directly to 
Madrid. But the time had not yet come for the 
cautious and dilatory councils of the Spanish mon- 
archy to entertain a proposition so doubtful and 
hazardous. When the King of France had made 
up his mind to give aid to the American Colonies 
in their struggle for independence, he indited a 
letter under his own hand to Charles III., ear- 
nestly urging him to take part against the com- 
mon enemy. The advice, however, was far from 
being acceptable to his Catholic Majesty ; who 
even complained that, in a matter in which there 
should have been a previous understanding and 
friendly concert between the two branches of the 
house of Bourbon, the King of France had already 
committed himself, without consulting him. 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, May session, 1779, p. 32. 
VOL. i. 18 



206 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Instead, therefore, of entering into the war, 
the King of Spain offered his mediation to the 
belligerent powers, to bring about a pacification 
which would, of course, include the American 
States. The mediation was cordially accepted by 
France, and not declined by England. Negotia- 
tions were carried on by the mediator for eight 
or nine months, which the haughty spirit of 
Great Britain at length brought to an abrupt 
close ; and the King of Spain, no longer able to 
avoid the obligations of the family compact, in 
June, 1779, recalled his ambassador from London, 
with a virtual declaration of war against Eno> 
land. 

Apprehensive, however, for the security of- his 
own empire in America, he was not willing to 
become a party to the alliance between France 
and the United States, unless the latter should 
first renounce their claim to the navigation of 
the Mississippi, and also limit their territorial 
pretensions within the Alleghany mountains, as 
their extreme western boundary. France, attach- 
ing the highest importance to the naval coop- 
eration of Spain in the American war, and anx- 
ious also to restore the cordiality of her relations 
with her ancient ally, used all her influence with 
the United States to obtain from them the con- 
cessions demanded by Spain as the condition of 
her accession to the alliance. These concessions, 
however, involved interests of far too vital a 
nature to the United States to be easily yielded ; 



MISSISSIPPI AND WESTERN LANDS. 207 

and we shall see that they formed the Gor- 
dian knot of the foreign negotiations, as well as 
of the domestic councils, of the Confederacy for 
years yet to come. No State was more deeply 
interested in these questions than Virginia ; and 
by a resolution of her Assembly, adopted the 
5th of November, 1779, her delegates in Con- 
gress were instructed, " in the pending negotia- 
tions with Spain, to use their utmost endeavours 
to obtain an express stipulation in favor of the 
United American States, for the free navigation 
of the river Mississippi to the sea," with a free 
port and other easements on the shores and at 
the mouth of the river. 1 

Within a short time after the adoption of this 
resolution, another act of the General Assembly 
of Virginia, of a very marked character, served 
to show, how delicate and sensitive were the ques- 
tions relating to that Western territory, on which 
Spain had fixed an eye of covetous and ambi- 
tious desire. Virginia, in virtue of her chartered 
limits, as well as, recently, by right of con- 
quest, claimed a large domain, stretching away 
from the mountain barrier of the Alleghanies to 
the banks of the Mississippi and the shores of 
the northern lakes. Some private land compa- 
nies (the Indiana and Vandalia especially) had 
set up claims to extensive portions of this terri- 
tory in opposition to her laws, and appealed to 
Congress to protect their alleged titles against 

i See Hen. Stat. vol. x. pp. 535, 536. 



208 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the jurisdiction of Virginia. The General Assem- 
bly of the State, on the 10th clay of December, 
1779, adopted a remonstrance, addressed to the 
Congress of the United States, asserting in strong 
terms a her exclusive rights of sovereignty and 
jurisdiction within her own territory " ; and, while 
professing every disposition to make sacrifices to 
the common interest of America, protesting ener- 
getically against any jurisdiction or right of adju- 
dication in Congress on the matter of the above- 
mentioned petitions, or upon any other matter 
" interfering with the internal policy, civil gov- 
ernment, or sovereignty of the several States, in 
cases not warranted by the articles of confedera- 
tion." ] 

It was in the midst of these grave and diffi- 
cult questions of foreign and domestic policy, 
and at a most critical and embarrassed period 
of the great contest for American Independence, 
that Mr. Madison was sent forth to exert his 
patriotism and talents on the theatre of the na- 
tional councils. On the 14th of December, 1779, 
at the age of twenty-eight years, he was chosen 
by the General Assembly of Virginia one of the 
delegates to represent the State in the Congress 
of the Confederation. 

1 See Journal of the House of Delegates of the date referred to 
The Remonstrance was, doubtless, drawn by George Mason. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Confederate Government the first and natural Want of the Social 
State in America — Successive Stages of its Development — Extent 
and Detail of the Powers of Congress under the Articles of Con- 
federation — Number and Character of its Members — Earnest 
Appeal of Washington on Behalf of the National Service — Col- 
leagues of Madison in Congress — Gloomy Condition of Public 
Affairs at the Period of his Entrance on the National Theatre — 
Causes of the Public Distress — Financial Embarrassments — Strik- 
ing Letter of Mr. Madison on the Subject — Committee appointed 
by Congress to confer with the Commander-in-chief — Military 
Preparations and Events — French Land and Naval Forces arrive 
in the United States — Reduced to Inactivity by the Naval Supe- 
riority of the Enemy — Disasters of the Campaign — The Neces- 
sity of increased Vigor and Foresight — Views of Mr. Madison 
with Regard to both Financial and Political Reform — His Consti- 
tutional Creed — Measures adopted by Congress — Representation 
addressed to the King of France — Special Mission of Colonel 
John Laurens. 

The Congress of the Confederation, of which 
Mr. Madison was now a member, was the su- 
preme and central authority on which depended 
the conduct of the war, the struggle for inde- 
pendence, and every great interest common to 
the confederated States. Federal association, in 

18* 



210 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

some form or other, was so obviously dictated 
by the circumstances of Colonies planted in a 
new and distant hemisphere, all springing from 
a common national parentage, speaking the same 
language, and governed by kindred institutions, 
civil and social, that it may be said to be the 
natural and spontaneous growth of the American 
soil. Thus arose, as early as 1643, the Confed- 
eracy of the "United Colonies of New England," 
which maintained a virtually independent admin- 
istration of the affairs of those Colonies, under a 
nominal subjection to the metropolitan authority 
of England, for the space of near half a century. 
The Albany Plan of Union of 1754, embracing 
all the Colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia, 
though specially evoked, at the moment, by the 
prospect of an impending war with France, was 
the result of the same permanent law of recipro- 
cal attraction and mutual dependence, which binds 
together, in one harmonious whole, the elements 
of American greatness. 

That plan was lost through the dormant jeal- 
ousies which even then existed between the 
mother country and its Colonies ; but it was re- 
served for the master mind which conceived it 1 
to propose, in the Congress of 1776, when the 
final and inevitable rupture had taken place, 
another scheme of " Confederation and perpetual 
Union," which became the groundwork on which 
the system actually adopted by independent 

1 Franklin. 



POWERS OF CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 211 

America to maintain her struggle with the par- 
ent state was built up. Such, however, Avas the 
inherent difficulty of balancing the centripetal 
and centrifugal forces in the new political sys- 
tem that, though the task was referred in June, 
1776, to a committee consisting of one member 
from each State, which made its report on the 
12th day of the following month, the "Articles" 
were not finally agreed upon in Congress until 
the 15th day of November, 1777; and they yet 
wanted the assent of the legislature of one State 
(Maryland) to complete the unanimous ratifica- 
tion required, when Mr. Madison took his seat 
in the Federal Assembly. 

Under these articles, — which, although not yet 
complete in point of legal validity, formed, by 
common consent, the rule of procedure for the 
federal authority, and the States in their rela- 
tions with each other, — the general Congress 
exercised the widest possible range of political 
functions, legislative, executive, and even judi- 
cial. It possessed the power of peace and war; 
conducted foreign negotiations ; received ambas- 
sadors and ministers ; appointed diplomatic agents 
of its own, as well as all civil and military offi- 
cers of the higher grades employed in the ser- 
vice of the United States ; exercised a general 
superintendence and control over the operations 
of the war; determined the amount and descrip- 
tion of the land and naval forces to be raised 
by the States ; fixed the sums of money to be 



212 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

contributed by them for the common defence 
and other purposes, and appropriated the same ; 
and in short was charged, theoretically at least, 
with the general interests of the Confederacy in 
whatever concerned its collective action without, 
or the preservation of harmony within. 

At the same time, it was declared to be a 
fundamental canon of the Confederacy that u each 
State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and inde- 
pendence, and every power, jurisdiction, and 
right which is not, by this confederation, ex- 
pressly delegated to the United States in Con- 
gress assembled." Upon the vital subjects of 
finance and military preparation, while Congress 
was invested with the unlimited power of " bor- 
rowing money and emitting bills on the credit 
of the United States," it could raise neither rev- 
enue nor troops by any direct action of its own, 
but only by requisition upon the States for their 
respective quotas of each, as apportioned by Con- 
gress in the ratio established by the articles of 
confederation. 

Enfeebled, and sometimes frustrated in its best 
directed efforts, as we shall see Congress not un- 
frequently was, for the want of a direct power 
to call forth the resources, fiscal and military, 
of the country, its sphere of action was yet so 
extensive and paramount as to demand, in its 
members, abilities and virtues of the highest or- 
der. The number of the body was comparatively 
small. Each State had but one vote in the com- 



WASHINGTON'S APPEAL. 213 

mon council, and was limited to a representation 
not exceeding seven, nor less than two, delegates. 
The delegates were annually chosen by the leg- 
islatures of the several States; and the same 
person was not capable of being a delegate for 
more than three years in any term of six. It 
rarely happened that any of the States had 
more than three or four delegates present at 
the same time, and frequently some of them had 
not more than their minimum number in attend- 
ance ; so that the total number of the body as- 
sembled ranged generally from thirty to forty. 

After the first two or three years of the war, 
and especially after the treaty of alliance with 
France, which inspired in many an over-sanguine 
confidence that the contest would soon be brought 
to a successful close, not a few of the leading 
men of the several States grew weary of the 
federal service, and withdrew from Congress. 
General Washington, deeply impressed with the 
fatal consequences threatened by this abandon- 
ment of the federal councils by men of large 
experience and tried abilities, addressed letters 
of earnest remonstrance to several of his confi- 
dential friends on the subject. Among these was 
Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of Virginia ; and in a 
letter of the 18th of December, 1778, to that 
gentleman, who was then Speaker of the House 
of Delegates of his own State, he pleads thus 
impressively the claims of the national service. 

"As there can be no harm in a pious wish 



214 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

for the good of one's country, I shall offer it as 
mine that each State would not only choose, but 
absolutely compel, their ablest men to attend 

Congress Without this, to how 

little purpose are the States individually framing 
constitutions, providing laws, and filling offices 
with the abilities of their ablest men. These, 
if the great whole is mismanaged, must sink in 
the general wreck, which will carry with it the 
remorse of thinking that we are lost by our own 
folly or negligence, or by the desire, perhaps, 
of living in ease and tranquillity during the ex- 
pected accomplishment of so great a revolution, 
in the effecting of which the greatest abilities 
and the most honest men our American world 
affords, ought to be employed. It is much to 
be feared, my dear sir, that the States, in their 
separate capacities, have but very inadequate 
ideas of the present clanger. Many persons, re- 
moved far distant from the scene of action, and 
seeing and hearing such publications only as 
flatter their wishes, conceive that the contest is 
at an end, and that to regulate the government 
and police of their own State is all that remains 
to be done ; but it is devoutly to be wished that 
a sad reverse of this may not fall upon them, 
like a thunder clap that is little expected." 

This glowing, and even pathetic expostulation 
of the great chief, on whose Atlantean shoulders 
was cast the main burthen of the contest, had 
not all the effect he desired. Mason, Wythe, 



COLLEAGUES OF MADISON IN CONGRESS. 215 

Jefferson, Nicholas, Pendleton, Nelson, — to whom, 
in a subsequent letter to Colonel Harrison, 1 he 
severally appealed by name, — still remained, 
from the influence of considerations of a public 
or private nature, in the councils of the State. 
Mr. Henry, immediately after the close of his 
executive administration, was again chosen b}>" 
the legislature a delegate to the general Con- 
gress ; but he soon resigned the appointment, 
without ever having taken his seat under it. 
Richard Henry Lee, after three years continuous 
service since his last appointment, had just re- 
tired under the obligatory rotation established by 
a law of the State, as well as the articles of 
confederation. 

Virginia had limited her number of delegates 
to five ; and to fill the vacancies which now 
existed in her representation, Mr. Joseph Jones, 
a confidential friend of Washington, — who had 
already served for a short time in Congress dur- 
ing the year 1777, and now gave up an honor- 
able place as one of the judges of the general 
court of Virginia to return to that service, — 
Mr. James Henry, a distant kinsman of the great 
orator, and Mr. John Walker were appointed, 
with Mr. Madison, delegates for the current term, 
which would end the first Monday in November, 
1780. The representation was completed by Mr. 
Cyrus Griffin, one of the old members, who re- 
tained his seat under an unexpired term. Mr. 

1 See Sparks's Washington, vol. VI. p. 152. 



21 G LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Madison appeared and took his seat the 20th of 
March, 1780, Mr. James Henry the 21st of April, 
and Mr. Jones the 24th of that month. The 
attendance of Mr. Walker is shown only by the 
secret journal, and for a short time. 

Nothing could have been more gloomy and 
discouraging than the aspect of public affairs at 
the period when Mr. Madison entered upon his 
national career. The main body of the Amer- 
ican army was still in winter quarters at Morris- 
town, and almost on the verge of dissolution 
from the combined effect of short supplies of 
food and clothing, short terms of enlistment, and 
the spirit of dissatisfaction, approaching to mu- 
tiny, which those causes naturally produced. 
These brave men were by turns, and for weeks 
together, without meat or without bread ; and 
in the extremity of their distresses, could not 
always be restrained from irregular modes of 
supplying their wants, which the law of self- 
preservation seemed to excuse, if not to justify. 
On the 3d of April, 1780, the commander-in-chief 
wrote to the president of Congress : — 

" I think it my duty to touch upon the gen- 
eral situation of the army at this juncture. It 
is absolutely necessary that Congress should be 
apprised of it, for it is difficult to foresee what 
may be the result; and as very serious conse- 
quences are to be apprehended, I should not be 
justified in preserving silence. There never has 
been a stage of the war in which the dissatis- 



FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENTS. 217 

faction has been so general or alarming. It has 
lately, in particular instances, worn features of a 
very dangerous complexion." 

This unhappy and critical state of things was 
the consequence of the almost total loss of public 
credit, which had at length resulted from the 
financial system that had been adopted for the 
prosecution of the war. Many considerations for- 
bidding a large recourse to taxes, which depended, 
moreover, exclusively on the State governments, 
Congress resorted to the expedient of issuing, 
from time to time, bills of credit to meet the 
expenses of the war ; until the amount issued 
had now reached the formidable sum of two 
hundred millions of dollars, which, by a resolu- 
tion of the 1st of September, 1779, they had 
already determined, should, " on no account what- 
ever," be exceeded. 1 No specific funds having 
been provided, nor any certain period fixed, for 
the redemption of these bills, they soon began to 
depreciate ; and at this time they passed, in trans- 
actions of business, at the rate of forty dollars in 
paper for one of specie. 

In the hope, at least, of arresting a farther 
depreciation, if not of ultimately restoring the 
credit of the circulation, Congress, on the 18th 
day of March, 1780, just two days before Mr. 
Madison took his seat in the body, adopted a 
resolution to substitute for the old issues, as they 
should come in under the requisition upon the 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. n. p. 347. 

VOL. I. 19 



218 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

States, new bills to be made payable in specie 
six years after date, bearing, in the mean time, 
an interest of five per cent. ; and specific funds 
were to be provided by the several States, as 
well as the faith of the United States to be 
pledged, for the punctual payment of both prin- 
cipal and interest. 1 At the same time, the actual 
rate of depreciation of the bills already issued 
was recognized and established, by declaring that 
" gold and silver should be received in payment 
of the quotas of the several States at the rate 
of one Spanish milled dollar in lieu of forty 
dollars of the bills now in circulation ; " a regula* 
tion which, however intended by Congress, was 
viewed by many of the public creditors, both for- 
eign and domestic, as a virtual act of national 
bankruptcy. 2 

The sudden and heavy depreciation of the bills 
of credit, which now constituted almost the sole 
pecuniary resource of the United States, by ren- 
dering the purchase of supplies, to any material 
extent, practically impossible, was the immediate 
cause of the alarming destitution and demoral- 
ization into which the army had fallen, under 
the very eyes of the commander-in-chief, and in 
spite of almost superhuman efforts of vigilance 
and providence, on his part, to avert the catas- 

1 See Journals of* Congress, vol. of the American Revolution, vol. 
n. pp. 442 111. v. pp. 208-211, and -213-225; and 

2 See complaints of Count de Life of Witherspoon by Dr. Ashbel 
Vergennes, and Mr. Adams's re- Green. 

ply, in Diplomatic Correspondence 



LETTER OF MR. MADISON. 219 

trophe. Congress, despairing of obtaining any 
means of purchasing supplies in time for the 
ensuing campaign, on the 25th of February, 1 780, 
adopted the novel and somewhat primitive expe- 
dient of calling upon the Stales to make their 
contributions to the common treasury in articles 
of produce, — such as flour, beef, hay, and corn, 
— instead of mone}^ This rude system of finance 
Avas too slow and awkward in its mechanism to 
bring any immediate or sensible relief; and the 
crisis of danger and anxiety continued, for the 
present, without a single circumstance of allevia- 
tion. We will leave it, however, to Mr. Madi- 
son's pencil to sketch the picture of national 
embarrassment and distress, which greeted him 
on his arrival in Philadelphia. On the 27th of 
March, 1780, he wrote to Mr. Jefferson, then 
governor of Virginia, in the following terms: — 
"Among the various conjunctures of alarm and 
distress which have arisen in the course of the 
Revolution, it is with pain I affirm to you that 
no one can be singled out more truly critical 
than the present. Our army threatened with an 
immediate alternative of disbanding or living on 
free quarter ; the public treasury empty ; public 
credit exhausted, — nay, the private credit of 
purchasing agents employed, I am told, as far as 
it will bear ; Congress complaining of the extor- 
tion of the people ; the people, of the improvi- 
dence of Congress ; and the army, of both ; our 
affairs requiring the most mature and systematic 



220 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

measures, and the urgency of occasions admit- 
ting only of temporizing expedients, and these 
expedients generating new difficulties ; Congress 
recommending plans to the several States for ex- 
ecution, and the States separately rejudging the 
expediency of such plans, whereby the same dis- 
trust of concurrent exertions that has damped 
the ardor of patriotic individuals, must produce 
the same effect among the States themselves ; 
an old system of finance discarded as incompe- 
tent to our necessities, an untried and precarious 
one substituted, and a total stagnation in pros- 
pect, between the end of the former and the 
operation of the latter. 

" These are the outlines of the picture of our 
public situation. I leave it to your own imag- 
ination to fill them up. Believe me, sir, as 
things now stand, if the States do not vigorously 
proceed in collecting the old money, and estab- 
lishing funds for the credit of the new, we are 
undone ; and let them be ever so expeditious in 
doing this, still the intermediate distress to our 
army, and hindrance to public affairs, are a sub- 
ject of melancholy reflection. General Washing- 
ton writes that a failure of bread has already 
commenced in the army, and that, for anything 
he sees, it must unavoidably increase. Meat they 
have only for a short season ; and as the whole 
dependence is on provisions now to be procured, 
without ti shilling for the purpose, and without 
credit for a shilling, I look forward with the 
most pungent apprehensions." 



COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH WASHINGTON. 221 

To provide, if possible, some remedy for the 
distresses of the army, and to devise a more 
efficient system in the administration of its vari- 
ous departments, as well as to make arrange- 
ments for the ensuing campaign, Congress ap- 
pointed a committee of three of its members to 
repair to headquarters. They were to consult 
with the commander-in-chief upon the necessary 
measures of preparation or reform, which they 
were authorized, with his advice, to carry at once 
into effect, or otherwise to report for the consid- 
eration of Congress. 1 General Schuyler, then one 
of the delegates of New York, Mr. Matthews of 
South Carolina, and Mr. Peabody of New Hamp- 
shire, were selected for this important duty. 
They continued at headquarters, in consultation 
with the commander-in-chief for six months ; and 
although measures of great intrinsic utility re- 
sulted from their joint councils, the fatal want 
of money and of credit — those indispensable re- 
sources of war — continued to embarrass and 
enfeeble all the operations of the service. 

There never had been a period of the war 
which called for such vigorous and universal ex- 
ertion. Charleston was invested by the enemy 
with a large land and naval force, directed in 
person by the commander-in-chief, Sir Henry Clin- 
ton. In the event of its fall, which seemed but 

1 See Journals of Congress, un- and Secret Journals, under date 

der dates of the 6th and 12th of of the 19th of May, 1780, vol. I. 

April, 1780, vol. in. pp. 446, 447, p. 150. 

19* 



222 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

too probable, the whole Southern country would 
be at once exposed to be overrun by him. The 
main body of the British army, left under the 
command of General Knyphausen, continued in 
possession of the city of New York; and from 
thence daily threatened the adjacent States, and 
particularly New Jersey, in which the main body 
of the American army, under the immediate com- 
mand of Washington, was quartered. 

In these circumstances, nothing could have 
been more trying and painfully embarrassing 
than the situation of the American commander- 
in-chief. His guardian care and vigilance were 
summoned, at the same moment, to opposite and 
widely distant points of the compass. His means 
of every kind were greatly inferior to those of 
the enemy; who superadded to all his other ad- 
vantages the absolute command of the water, by 
which he was enabled to transfer his forces and 
supplies, with the velocity of the wind, from 
place to place, while the defenders of the coun- 
ti'v were doomed to long and toilsome marches, 
and an almost impracticable transportation by 
land. Washington sent detachment after detach- 
ment from the main body of his army for the 
defence of the South, and was thus left with a 
remnant of continental troops reduced to three 
thousand men, and such reinforcements of militia 
as he could collect on the spur of the occasion, 
to face an army greatly superior in numbers 
and equipments, and so flushed with confidence 



ARRIVAL OF FRENCH TROOPS. 223 

that its leader, Knyphausen, pushed an incursion 
into the State of New Jersey to the very verge 
of Washington's encampment. A few days later, 
Sir Henry Clinton himself, who ha<il returned 
to New York immediately after the capture of 
Charleston, appeared and took command of the 
expedition. 

Thus beset on every hand, Washington was, 
at the same time, earnestly and anxiously intent 
on preparations for a great and decisive move- 
ment in concert with our allies, which, he flat- 
tered himself, would put a victorious close, during 
the present campaign, to the contest, by giving 
him possession of the city of New York, and 
with it of the main body of the British army. 
Lafayette — who seemed, in some sort, the tute- 
lary genius of American independence — had, 
after freely hazarding his life for the cause in 
the fields of Brandywine and Monmouth, gone 
back to his native country to solicit of its pow- 
erful monarch the succours necessary to crown 
the struggle with final and complete success. 
He had now returned to America, and brought 
with him the royal promise of a large reinforce- 
ment of both land and naval forces, — already 
collected at Brest, and soon to depart for the 
coasts of the United States. 

The news diffused hope and joy through the 
country, and inspired Congress with fresh vigor 
and resolution. They immediately called upon 
the States to pay into the treasury, Avithin one 



224 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

month, the sum of ten millions of dollars to 
enable them to bring into the field an efficient 
army of cooperation ; and, through their com- 
mittee at headquarters, as well as by direct ap- 
peals, they employed every method to stimulate 
the States to furnish, with the utmost prompti- 
tude, the supplies of specific articles required of 
them for the support of the army. 1 On the 
10 th day of July, the French fleet, under the 
command of the Count de Ternay, bringing 
a body of five thousand troops under General 
Count Rochambeau, made its appearance at New- 
port. Nor was this the full extent of the prom- 
ised succours. Another division of the fleet was 
soon to leave Brest, and bring with it an addi- 
tional and nearly equal number of men. 

Every thing now exhibited the eagerness of 
expectation, and, as far as possible, of prepara- 
tion on the part of the American army for the 
combined, and as it was hoped, decisive blow. 
Washington collected his forces, and moved for- 
ward to the east of the Hudson, to be nearer to 
his ally and the object of their joint enterprise. 
The command of the water was the sine qua non 
of every plan of operation that was in contem- 
plation. This was unfortunately lost by the ap- 
pearance on the coast, a few days after Count 
de Ternay, of Admiral Graves with six ships of 
the line, which gave the naval superiority to the 
enemy. It was confidently hoped to regain it 

1 See Secret Journal of Congress, vol. i. pp. 149-151. 



DISASTERS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 225 

by the arrival, daily expected, of the second 
division of the French fleet. At length came 
the blighting news that the French fleet was 
blockaded in the harbour of Brest by a large 
and superior force of the enemy. Hopes were 
then turned to the French squadron in the West 
Indies ; and urgent letters were addressed to its 
commander, Count de Guichen, both by Wash- 
ington and De Ternay, to supply the required 
naval reinforcement. This last hope vanished. 
De Guichen had already sailed to Europe ; and 
soon afterwards, the British naval predominance 
was still farther increased by the arrival at New 
York of Admiral Rodney, with eleven ships of 
the line and four frigates. 

Thus ended in disappointment, for the present 
season, the combined movements of the French 
and American forces, from which so much had 
been expected; and on which the commander-in- 
chief had, at one time, fondly set his heart to 
close in triumph, with the pending campaign, the 
great contest for American freedom. But the 
time was not yet. America was to pass through 
other trials, and to learn still further lessons of 
wisdom and virtue in the hard school of expe- 
rience, before she entered into full possession of 
the prize of national independence for which she 
was contending. 

Disappointment and disasters met her in the 
South, as well as the North. After the fall of 
Charleston, Cornwallis swept, like a whirlwind, 



226 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

with his ferocious legions over the Carolinas, till 
the native bravery and self-taught generalship 
of the independent borderers of Virginia and of 
North and South Carolina gave him a check at 
King's Mountain ; and thus opened the way for 
the future successes of Greene, of Morgan, and 
of William Washington, of Marion and of Sump- 
tcr, and of their heroic brethren in arms. A yet 
deeper shade was to be added to the picture of 
national trials and adversities, during this mem- 
orable year, by the treason of Arnold ; but even 
in that, the guardianship of Providence was mani- 
fested in the timely and critical discovery of a 
secret impending blow, from which, if it had 
been permitted to fall, the recovery must have 
been slow and painful indeed. 

The many difficulties and embarrassments of 
the public service, during the year, were fraught 
with profitable lessons to every thoughtful Amer- 
ican statesman. It was the business of Congress 
to provide, as far as possible, against their recur- 
rence. A mind, like Mr. Madison's, could not 
have been inattentive to so grave and exigent a 
duty. He saw that the primary source of the 
national disasters was in the disordered state of 
the public finances ; and that there was no hope 
of repairing these, unless some barrier could be 
opposed to the flood of depreciated paper money 
with which the country was inundated. Congress, 
by its resolution of the 18th of March, had sought 
to diminish, if not wholly to correct, this evil by 



STATE EMISSIONS OF PAPER MONEY. 227 

drawing in its own issues, as far as it was prac- 
ticable to do so : and in order to take away from 
the States the inducement to resort to farther 
emissions of a like kind, it had called upon them 
for contributions in specific articles instead of 
money, nominal or real. It was designed that 
these specific supplies should be raised by spe- 
cific assessments on the tax payers ; but instead 
of that, in many of the States it was attempted 
to procure them with new bills of credit or cer- 
tificates of debt issued for the purpose, — thus 
swelling the mass of depreciated paper money, 
which already paralyzed the operations of the 
public administration, as well as the business of 
the country. 

In the month of October, 1780, Mr. Madison 
addressed a letter from Philadelphia to his col- 
league, Mr. Jones, — who was then attending a 
session of the State legislature, of which he was 
a member at the same time as of Congress, — in 
which he presses upon his consideration the 
following important observations : — 

" We continue to receive periodical alarms 
from the commissary's and quartermaster's de- 
partments. The period is now arrived when 
provision ought to be made for a season that 
will not admit of transportation, and when the 
monthly supplies must be subject to infinite dis- 
appointments, even if the States were to do their 
duty. But instead of magazines being laid in, 
our army is living from hand to mouth, with a 






228 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

prospect of being soon in a condition still worse 
How a total dissolution of it can be prevent- 
ed in the course of the winter, is, for any re- 
sources now in prospect, utterly inexplicable, 
unless the States unanimously make a vigorous 
and speedy effort to form magazines for the pur- 
pose. 

" But unless the States take other methods to 
procure their specific supplies than have pre- 
vailed in most of them, the utmost efforts to 
comply with the requisitions of Congress can 
only be a temporary relief. This expedient, as 
I take it, was meant to prevent the emission 
of paper money. Our own experience, as well 
as the example of other countries, made it evi- 
dent that we could not by taxes draw back to 
the treasury the emissions as fast as they were 
necessarily drawn out. We could not follow the 
example of other countries by borrowing ; neither 
our own citizens nor foreigners being willing to 
lend as far as our wants extended. To continue 
to emit ad infinitum was thought more dangerous 
than an absolute occlusion of the press. Under 
these circumstances, the expedient of specific 
requisitions was adopted for supplying the neces- 
sities of the war. But it is clear the success of 
this expedient depends on the mode of carry- 
ing it into execution. If, instead of executing it 
by specific taxes, State emissions, or commissary's 
and quartermaster's certificates, (which are a 
worse species of emissions,) are recurred to, what 



MR. MADISON'S VIEWS OF THE REMEDY. 229 

was intended for our relief will only hasten our 
destruction." 

Mr. Madison was so impressed with the per- 
nicious consequences of this practice of the States 
in procuring the specific supplies required of 
them with new emissions of paper money, (which 
in another letter to his colleague, of a few days 
later date, he emphatically pronounced to be 
"the bane of every salutary arrangement of the 
public finances,") that, when the estimates for 
the ensuing year were under consideration, he 
proposed that Congress should address a formal 
recommendation to the States to discontinue the 
use of those emissions. His proposition, he says, 
met with a cool reception, — not because the 
practice which it sought to dissuade the States 
from found any apologists, but, on the contrary, 
because that practice was considered " so mani- 
festly repugnant to the spirit of the acts of Con- 
gress heretofore passed," that it was thought use- 
less to address any farther recommendations to 
the States upon the subject. 

We offer yet another extract from Mr. Madi- 
son's correspondence of this period, not merely 
to show his sense of the paramount importance of 
a sound and reliable system of national finance, 
— an object which, we shall see, he earnestly 
and steadily pursued through the whole of his 
Congressional career, — but also as developing a 
great and leading principle of his constitutional 

creed. Attached by his earliest impressions and 
vol. i. 20 



230 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

most profound convictions to republican govern- 
ment, he studied closely the weaknesses and 
infirmities which had discredited democratical 
experiments elsewhere ; and while placing our 
institutions frankly and unreservedly on the fun- 
damental principle of popular sovereignty, he 
labored to secure them from the danger of those 
aberrations which, under crude and unbalanced 
systems, had hitherto exposed the principle itself 
to more or less of distrust. His great aim was to 
vindicate and recommend republican government 
by establishing it on the broad, moral and legal 
foundations of justice, order, and public faith, 
and of energy sufficient to give effect to the 
legitimate decrees of the public will. In the fol- 
lowing observations, contained in a letter ad- 
dressed by him on the 7th of November, 1780, 
to Mr. Pendleton, then the presiding judge of the 
High Court of Chancery in Virginia, we trace the 
dawnings of that policy which produced, a few 
years later, the Constitution of the United States. 
"The want of money is the source of all our 
public difficulties and misfortunes. One or two 
millions of guineas, properly applied, would dif- 
fuse vigor and satisfaction throughout the whole 
military departments, and would expel the enemy 
from every part of the United States. It would 
also have another good effect. It would recon- 
cile the army and everybody else to our re- 
publican forms of government ; the principal 
inconveniences imputed to them being really the 



MEASURES OF CONGRESS. 231 

fruit of defective revenues. What other States 
effect by money, we are obliged to pursue by 
dilatory and indigested expedients, ivhich benumb 
all our operations, and expose our troops to 
numberless distresses. If these were well paid, 
well fed, and well clothed, they would be well 
satisfied, and fight with more success. And this 
might and would be as well effected by our gov- 
ernments as by any other, if they possessed 
money enough ; — as, in our moneyless situation, 
the same embarrassments would have been ex- 
perienced by any government." 

The lessons of the late campaign, enforced by 
the constant and earnest representations of the 
commander-in-chief, were not lost upon Congress. 
They proceeded to reorganize the army on a 
more effective plan for the operations of the en- 
suing year. Its aggregate force was to be raised 
to thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty- 
eight rank and file ; and the new enlistments 
were to be made for the whole period of the 
war, — a point of vital importance, which the 
commander-in-chief had often, but hitherto in 
vain, pressed upon the consideration of Con- 
gress. 1 To offer more adequate inducements to 
remain or engage in the service, half-pay for life 
was promised to all officers who should serve 
to the end of the war, and it was recommended 

1 Journals of Congress, under and 538 ; also Secret Journals, 
date of the 3d and 21st of Octo- vol. i. p. 206. 
ber, 1780, vol. in. pp. 532, 533, 



232 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

to the States to make up to their respective 
lines the loss sustained by them from the de- 
preciation of .the medium in which they had 
been paid. The States were at the same time 
called upon, " in the most pressing manner," 
to have their several quotas of the common 
force completed, and in the field, by the 1st of 
January next, — a requisition afterwards urgently 
and emphatically repeated in consequence of a 
letter from the commander-in-chief, which was 
transmitted by Congress to the legislatures or 
executives of the respective States, who were 
reminded that " the public safety depended on 
their complying, without reserve or delay, with 
the measures adopted for an active and decisive 
campaign." 2 

While these arrangements were pursued for 
raising a more effective military force, corre- 
sponding provisions were made to place the fiscal 
resources of the country — an instrument of war 
no less essential — on a more adequate and sat- 
isfactory footing. In addition to the arrears of 
former requisitions, the States were now called 
upon to raise by taxes the value of six millions 
of silver (not paper) dollars ; of which a large 
portion was allowed to be paid in .specific sup- 
plies for the army at fixed valuations, and the 
residue in gold or silver, or the new bills of 
credit redeemable in specie. 2 It being felt that 

1 Resolution of the 22d of De- 2 Resolution of the 4th of No- 
cember, 1780. Journals of Con- vember, 1780. Journals of Con- 
gress, vol. m. p. 557. gress, vol. in. p. 542. 



REPRESENTATION TO FRANCE. L\;.'{ 

no taxation which the present condition of the 
country admitted of was, in itself, adequate to 
the extraordinary demands of a state of war, the 
ministers of the United States at the courts of 
France and Spain had been already instructed to 
use their best efforts to negotiate loans in those 
countries. A mission had also been recently sent 
to Holland, mainly with a view to pecuniary 
aids ; but the minister, Mr. Henry Laurens of 
South Carolina, former President of Congress, was 
captured on the voyage to his destination by a 
British cruiser, and was now a prisoner in the 
Tower at London. 

The hopes of Congress for pecuniary assistance 
rested mainly on the friendship and liberality of 
France, enforced by her common interest in the 
event of the contest. On the 22d of Novem- 
ber, 1780, they addressed to His Most Christian 
Majesty a letter, distinguished alike by its dig- 
nity and frankness, in which they recapitulated 
the untoward events of the last campaign, set 
forth, with manly candor, the extent and ur- 
gency of their financial wants, and concluded by 
informing him that " a foreign loan of specie, to 
the amount of twenty-five millions of livres at 
least," will be indispensably necessary for the 
vigorous prosecution of the next campaign : and 
for the reimbursement of it, they solemnly 
pledged to His Majesty the faith of the United 
States, whether it shall please him to become 

20* 



234 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

their security in the loan, or to advance the 
amount of it from his royal coffers. 1 

The negotiation, at first, was committed solely 
to the minister plenipotentiary, Dr. Franklin, who 
had been resident at Paris from the commence- 
ment of diplomatic relations with that country: 
but to give greater significance and urgency to 
the objects of it, Colonel John Laurens of the 
army, one of the staff of the commander-in- 
chief, was afterwards commissioned for the special 
purpose of soliciting, in conjunction with Dr. 
Franklin, the aids asked of His MoSt Christian 
Majesty, and of forwarding them to the United 
States with the least possible delay. He was 
instructed, at the same time, to use every effort 
to impress upon the minds of the King and his 
ministers the necessity of maintaining a naval 
superiority in the American seas, as the indis- 
pensable condition of success to the allied arms 
in the operations of the ensuing campaign. 2 

1 Secret Journals of Congress, 2 Secret Journals, vol. II. pp. 
vol. ii. pp. 343-348. 351, and 366-375. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Negotiations with Spain — Mr. Madison Chairman of a Committee to 
prepare Instructions to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay in Support of the 
Claims of the United States to Western Territory, and the free 
Navigation of the Mississippi River — Instructions drawn by him 
unanimously adopted — Outline of the Arguments and Topics pre- 
sented — Congress afterwards induced to change temporarily their 
Instructions with Regard to the free Navigation of the Mississippi — 
Pressure of Georgia and South Carolina upon Virginia to change 
her former Instructions to her Delegates — The Change deprecated 
and deplored by Mr. Madison — He corrects a Misrepresentation 
of the Conduct of Mr. Jay — Ultimate Return to the Principles of 
the original Instructions — Measures of Internal Policy — Urgent 
Motives for completing the Ratification of the Articles of Confed- 
eration — Successive Ratification of them by all the States except 
Maryland — Grounds of her persevering Opposition — Jealousy of 
the Territorial Claims of Virginia — Foundation and legal Validity 
of those Claims — Virginia willing to make a liberal Cession for 
the Sake of Conciliation and Harmony — Opinions of her leading 
Statesmen, Madison, Pendleton, and Mason — She finally proffers 
a Cession on Conditions submitted to Congress — Maryland author- 
izes her Delegates to sign the Articles of Confederation — Ratifica- 
tion completed, and proclaimed by Congress. 

We have already had occasion to mention 
how desirous both France and the United States 
were that Spain should become a party to their 
alliance. This was now more to be desired than 



236 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ever, as the junction of her naval armaments 
with those of France would, at once, give that 
maritime predominance on the American coasts, 
to which such vital importance was justly at- 
tached. The prospect of regaining the Floridas, 
which she had lost in the war of 1756, and, in 
that event, their guarantee by the United States 
had been held out by a resolution of Congress 
as an inducement for her to unite in the con- 
test : but this was upon the express condition 
that " the United States should enjoy the free 
navigation of the River Mississippi into and from 
the sea." * Such were the explicit instructions 
given to Mr. Jay, who had been appointed min- 
ister to Spain in the autumn of 1779. De- 
spatches recently received from him informed 
Congress of the earnestness with which the Span- 
ish government still continued to insist on the 
renunciation by the United States of their claim 
to the free navigation of the Mississippi, as the 
sine qua non of His Catholic Majesty's accession 
to the alliance. The minister, at the same time, 
expressed his own opinion that, if Congress re- 
mained firm, Spain would be ultimately content 
with such equitable regulations, in the use of the 
navigation, as should suffice to guard against 
contraband. 

These despatches, together with the instruc- 
tions of the legislature of Virginia to her dele- 

1 See Resolution of the 17th of September, 1779, Secret Journals, 
vol. II. pp. 248, 249. See also Idem, pp. 261-263. 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN. 237 

gates in Congress of the 5th of November, 1779, 
by which they were enjoined to use their utmost 
endeavours to maintain the freedom of the Mis- 
sissippi, were referred to a select committee. In 
pursuance of their report, Congress, on the 4th 
of October, 1780, unanimously resolved that Mr. 
Jay should adhere to his former instructions re- 
specting the right to the free navigation of the 
Mississippi (which, if not expressly acknowledged 
by Spain, was, in no event, to be relinquished 
by any stipulation on the part of the United 
States) ; and with regard to boundaries, that he 
should adhere strictly to the designation already 
fixed by Congress, making the Mississippi Eiver the 
western limit of the territory of the United States 
above the thirty-first parallel of north latitude. 

Two days after the adoption of these resolu- 
tions by Congress, a committee was appointed 
" to draft a letter to the ministers of the 
United States at the courts of Versailles and 
Madrid to enforce the instructions given by Con- 
gress to Mr. Jay by the resolutions of the 4th 
instant, and to explain the reasons and princi- 
ples on which the same are founded, that they 
may be respectively enabled to satisfy those 
courts of the justice and equity of the instruc- 
tions of Congress." Mr. Madison, Mr. Sullivan 
of New Hampshire, and Mr. Duane of New York, 
constituted the committee. 

The paper, required at the hands of this com- 
mittee, was one of the greatest delicacy and im- 



238 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

portance. It was to explain and vindicate the 
position of the United States on a question 
deeply affecting, not merely their foreign rela- 
tions and their prospects of obtaining that ex- 
ternal support of which they were so much in 
need, but their interior union and strength in all 
future time. It was to be addressed to two* of 
the most eminent men of their country, whose 
experience and wisdom made them objects of 
universal respect ; and, through them, to two of 
the most powerful and enlightened governments 
of the world, on a subject touching the interests 
and pride of the one, and the sympathies and 
political affinities of the other, and involved in 
more or less of difficulty and doubt by the con- 
tradictory solutions which the history of different 
nations presented. It is not a little singular 
that the preparation of such a paper should 
have devolved upon the youngest member, prob- 
ably, of the body to which he belonged. It was 
drawn by Mr. Madison, reported to Congress on 
the 17th of October, 1780, immediately agreed 
to, and transmitted to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay 
as the authorized exposition and defence of the 
claims of the United States. 

The law of nations, with regard to the right 
of those who inhabit the upper parts of a river 
flowing through the jurisdiction of a foreign 
power before it reaches the ocean, to use its 
navigation into the sea, — the common highway 
of commerce, — was, at this time, unsettled either 



FREE NAVIGATION OF RIVERS. 239 

by usage or authority. The freedom of the 
Rhine was established by the treaty of West- 
phalia in 1648, and was ever afterwards recog- 
nized by the general consent of Europe. But 
by the same treaty the mouth of the Scheldt 
was allowed to be closed by the United Prov- 
inces, within whose limits it fell, against the 
navigation of the Spanish Netherlands which 
occupied its upper course, and of all others, be- 
yond the limits of the new republic, who should 
desire to use it as a channel of communication 
to the sea. 

The Emperor Joseph II., to whom the Low 
Countries had descended under the arrangements 
of the Peace of Utrecht, became restless under 
the restrictions put by the treaty of Westphalia 
on that avenue to the ocean, which nature 
seemed to have given to his Flemish subjects in 
common with their Batavian neighbours ; and 
almost at the same time that our discussions 
commenced with Spain respecting the navigation 
of the Mississippi, he boldly demanded, and 
threatened to assert by force his claim to the 
free navigation of the Scheldt. He afterwards, 
however, with characteristic indecision renounced 
his claim by the treaty of Fontainebleau in 
1785; and the freedom of the Scheldt remained, 
more or less, a vexed question of the public law 
of Europe, until it was definitively established by 
the Congress of Vienna. 1 

1 See Histoire des Traites tie Paix, par Kock & Schoell. vol. iv. 
pp. 70-80, and vol. xi. p. 394. 



240 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The question of the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi, now in controversy between the United 
States and Spain, had heretofore been the sub- 
ject of conventional arrangement, as between 
other parties. In the treaty of Paris, which ter- 
minated the war of 1756 between England on 
the one hand and France and Spain on the other, 
the river Mississippi, from its source to its junc- 
tion with the Iberville, was established as the 
boundary between the British and French pos- 
sessions in America, — leaving the Island of Or- 
leans, on the eastern side of the Mississippi below 
the junction with the Iberville, and the whole 
country on the western side, to France ; and it 
was stipulated that " the river Mississippi shall 
be equally free as well to the subjects of Great 
Britain as to those of France, and expressly that 
part which is between the said Island of Orleans 
and the right bank of the river, as well as the 
passage both in and out of the mouth." 1 By a 
transfer of Louisiana made to Spain, the year 
after the treaty of Paris, she succeeded to all 
the possessions of France on the Mississippi; 
receiving them, of course, subject to the stipula- 
tions of the treaty of Paris, so long as that treaty 
should be in force. 

But the treaty of Paris, it was contended, was 
abrogated by the war which had since broken out 
with both France and Spain ; and it was, moreover, 
insisted that the stipulation respecting the free 

1 See 7th Article of the Treaty of Paris. 



REPORT OF MR. MADISON. 241 

navigation of the Mississippi, being made in favor 
of " the subjects of Great Britain/' could not be 
claimed by the people of the United States, as 
they were no longer British subjects. To these 
arguments Mr. Madison opposed the great prin- 
ciple of both natural and constitutional law, that 
the rights of a sovereign are held in trust for 
the people over whom he rules ; and that the 
sovereignty exercised by the King of England 
over the people of America not being in virtue 
of his quality as King of England merely, but 
because he was recognized by the consent of the 
people of America as their King also, stipulations 
made by him respecting America, and as the sov- 
ereign of America, should be considered as made 
for the particular benefit of the American people ; 
and when, from the course of events, they had 
been driven to resume the sovereignty into their 
own hands, the rights previously acquired by 
their conventional sovereign necessarily devolved 
upon them. 

But, independently of all treaty stipulations, 
Mr. Madison argued with convincing clearness 
and force, that, according to the general princi- 
ples of the law of nations, the circumstance of 
Spain being in possession of both banks of the 
river at and near its mouth ought not to be 
deemed " a natural or equitable bar " to the free 
use of its navigation by the inhabitants of the 
country above. Such an assumption, he alleged, 
" would authorize a nation, disposed to take 

VOL. I. 21 



242 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

advantage of circumstances, to contravene the 
clear indications of Nature and Providence, and 
the general good of mankind." He then in- 
stanced the universally acknowledged right of 
an " innocent passage," even with troops, through 
the territory of a foreign power; and pressing 
the argument a fortiori, demanded, "if a right 
to a passage by land through other countries 
may be claimed for troops, which are employed 
in the destruction of mankind, how much more 
may a passage by water be claimed for com- 
merce, which is beneficial to all nations." 

The claim of right he reinforced by considera- 
tions appealing to the interests of Spain. Looking 
into the future, he showed how the serious in- 
conveniences resulting to the inhabitants of the 
great Western basin, from a denial of the free 
use of the Mississippi, must be a constant and 
increasing source of disquietude to them, of vig- 
ilant and restrictive precautions on the part of 
Spain, and of mutual irritation and probable col- 
lision to both. He exhibited in perspective the 
unbounded agricultural riches of that vast and 
fertile region, and pointed out how those riches, 
if allowed to flow unobstructed through the chan- 
nel of the Mississippi, might become the basis 
of a most profitable trade to Spain and France 
in the exchange of their manufactures and arti- 
ficial products for the raw produce of Western 
America ; whereas, if that produce should be 
forced, by the occlusion of the Mississippi, to 



REPORT OF MR. MADISON. 243 

seek a market through the lakes and the St. Law- 
rence, or other eastern channels, it would only 
serve to swell still farther the already great mar- 
itime and commercial predominance of their rival 
and enemy, Great Britain. 

We have given this brief outline of Mr. Madi- 
son's powerful and persuasive plea for the free- 
dom of the Mississippi, as embodied in the report 
of the committee of Congress, because it laid the 
groundwork of all the future discussions on a 
vital question of national policy, — a question 
which continued, through many vicissitudes and 
a long series of years, to agitate the public 
councils, and in which he was destined, on va- 
rious occasions, to take a leading and most 
effective part. The report also embraces an 
able and expanded view of our claims to West- 
ern territory, — drawn from treaty stipulations, 
principles of public law, and considerations of 
foreign and domestic policy, — in answer to the 
jealous and covetous pretensions of Spain ; and 
exhibits marks, equally conspicuous, of the com- 
prehensive and analytical mind of the accom- 
plished author. 

This able paper seems at once to have assigned 
to Mr. Madison, in the estimation of Congress, 
the rank due to his superior worth and talents. 
We see him immediately afterwards, and in 
quick succession, placed on many of the most 
important committees appointed to prepare in- 
structions to our ministers abroad, or to hold 



244 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

conferences with foreign ministers residing in the 
country, and in these duties associated with 
the oldest and most distinguished members of 
the body, — Samuel Adams, Dr. Witherspoon, 
Judge Duane, Mr. McKean, Mr. Burke, and Mr. 
Matthews. 1 

, It is not without a painful feeling we are 
compelled to record the fact that the position 
thus nobly taken by Congress on the right to 
the free navigation of the Mississippi, and so 
ably sustained by the pen of Mr. Madison, was 
soon afterwards, under the stress of a supposed 
political necessity, temporarily abandoned. The 
progress made by the British arms in the South- 
ern States, after the fall of Charleston, had ex- 
cited serious apprehensions of the entire conquest 
of South Carolina and Georgia, at least ; and in 
this state of things it was feared that the ur- 
gency of the " armed neutrality " in Europe, 
which had suddenly risen to great power and 
influence under the auspices of Catharine II. of 
Eussia, would force a peace on the belligerents 
upon the basis of the idi possidetis, — involving a 
permanent alienation of the States which should 
be in possession of the enemy at the close of 
the war. To avert such a catastrophe, it was 
thought to be an object of especial importance 
to obtain without delay the aid and cooperation 
of Spain in the contest, and -to pay for it, if 
necessary, the price of a surrender of our claim 

1 See Secret Journals, vol. n. pp. 348, 358, 373, and 402. 



MOTION TO CHANGE INSTRUCTIONS. 245 

to the navigation of the Mississippi through her 
limits into the sea. 

We learn from the correspondence of Mr. Mad- 
ison that in little more than a month after the 
unanimous adoption of the instructions to Mr. Jay 
and Dr. Franklin, of which we have just given 
an account, the delegates of Georgia and South 
Carolina moved a reconsideration of those in- 
structions. Of this proceeding, the following 
statement is made by him in a letter of the 
25th of November, 1780, addressed to his col- 
league, Mr. Jones, who was still attending a - 
session of the State legislature at Richmond : — 

" The delegates from Georgia and South Caro- 
lina, apprehensive that a uti possidetis may be 
obtruded on the belligerent powers by the armed 
neutrality in Europe, and hoping that the acces- 
sion of Spain to the alliance will give greater 
concert and success to the military operations 
that may be pursued for the recovery of their 
States, and likewise add weight to the means 
that may be used to obviate a uti possidetis, have 
moved for a reconsideration of the instructions, 
in order to empower Mr. Jay, in case of neces- 
sity, to yield to the claims of Spain, in consid- 
eration of her guaranteeing our independence 
and affording us a handsome subsidy. The ex- 
pediency of such a motion is further urged from 
the dangerous negotiations now on foot by Brit- 
ish emissaries for detaching Spain from the war. 
Wednesday last was assigned for the considera-- 

21* 



246 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

tion of this motion, and it has continued the 
order of the day ever since, without being taken 

up." l 

The letter of Mr. Madison, from which this 
extract is taken, shows how deeply opposed he 
was, by principle and conviction, to any modi- 
fication of the instructions already given. He 
was justly distrustful of the policy of Spain; and 
believed that the proposed concession to her was 
a gratuitous and unnecessary, as it might be also 
an unavailing, sacrifice. What added to his mor- 
tification and embarrassment was to find his only 
colleague then present with him in Congress, 
Colonel Bland, differing in sentiment from him 
on so vital a question. Colonel Bland, a gentle- 
man, doubtless, of patriotism and intelligence, 
seems, nevertheless, to have been eccentric both 
in his character and opinions. He had been 
educated abroad to the profession of medicine; 
after the commencement of the war, he entered 
the army; had charge, for some time, of the 
Saratoga prisoners of war, in their cantonments 
in Virginia ; then resigned his military commis- 
sion ; and was recently appointed one of the 
delegates of the State in Congress. Having, Mr. 
Madison says, taken up the opinion with regard 
to the navigation of the Mississippi that we had 
"no just claim to the subject in controversy 
with Spain, and that it is the interest of Vir- 
ginia not to adhere to it," he drew up a letter 

1 See Madison's Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 64-68. 



LETTER OF VIRGINIA DELEGATES. 247 

to the legislature, recommending to them a 
revision of their former instructions on the 
subject. 1 

The remonstrances of Mr. Madison appear to 
have prevailed with him, for a time, to withhold 
his letter. But the pressure of the delegates of 
Georgia and South Carolina, 'and the solicitude 
of Congress, increasing with the untoward events 
of the war in the Southern department ; and the 
moral force of the instructions previously given 
by Virginia being, in a great degree, invalidated 
by representations that, under existing circum- 
stances, she would not insist on those instruc- 
tions ; Mr. Madison at length came to the 
conclusion that, for the removal of all doubts, 
and in order to produce harmony of action in 
the delegation, it was most expedient to refer 
the subject to the legislature for "their precise, 
full, and ultimate sense" with regard to it. 2 

The party of concession prevailed in the legis- 
lature ; and on the 2d of January, 1781, new 

1 It appears from a letter of the should cede to Spain, for a term 

20th of November, 178G, addressed of years, their right to the free 

by Colonel Bland to Mr. Arthur navigation of the Mississippi ; and 

Lee, (see Life of Arthur Lee, vol. to this proposal Colonel Bland 

ii. pp. 384, 385,) that Colonel declared himself opposed. He 

Bland had, at that time, entirely and Mr. Jay, it seems, had each 

changed his first opinions with re- changed their original opinions, 

gard to the rights and interests of but conversely, — the one from 

the United States in the naviga- concession to resistance, the other 

tion of the Mississippi. At the pe- from resistance to concession, 
riod mentioned, Mr. Jay, then sec- 2 See Madison's Debates and 

retary of foreign affairs, proposed Correspondence, vol. I. pp. 65-69, 

to Congress that the United States 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, and 75. 



248 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

instructions were given, to the effect that the 
navigation of the Mississippi should be claimed 
only as coextensive with our own territory, and 
• c that every further or other demand of the said 
navigation be ceded, if insisting on the same is 
deemed an impediment to a treaty with Spain." 
On turning to the Journals of Congress, it ap- 
pears that on the 15th of February, 1781, — a 
period of great public anxiety, if not of dismay, 
when General Greene, with his whole army, was 
in full retreat before Lord Cornwallis through 
the State of North Carolina, — new instructions 
were given by that body to Mr. Jay, authorizing 
him "to recede from his former instructions, so 
far as they insist on the free navigation of that 
part of the river Mississippi which lies below the 
31st degree of north latitude, &c, provided such 
cession shall be unalterably insisted on by Spain, 
and provided the free navigation of the said 
river above the said degree of north latitude 
shall be acknowledged and guaranteed by his 
Catholic Majesty to the citizens of the United 
States in common with his own subjects." * 

The imperfect character of the Journals of the 
old Congress (which record the results, without 
any account of the origin and progress of meas- 
ures,) has led certain historical writers into error 
with regard to the nature of the agency of Vir- 
ginia in this retrograde movement on a great 
question of national policy. Confining them- 

1 Secret Journals of Congress, vol. II. pp. 393-395. 



CHANGE OF INSTRUCTIONS EXPLAINED. 249 

selves to the isolated entry above referred to, — 
where the new instructions to Mr. Jay are rep- 
resented " as moved by the delegates of Virginia, 
in pursuance of instructions from their constitu- 
ents," — they have concluded that the measure 
had its origin with the State of Virginia. 1 This, 
we have seen, was not the fact. Mr. Madison, 
with his well known loyalty to historical truth, 
felt himself called on, after his final retirement 
from the public scene, to rectify this misconcep- 
tion ; and in a communication of the 8th of June, 
1822, to Niles's Register, 2 (a work designed to 
serve as an authentic repository of the materials 
of American history,) he gave a detailed and 
lucid statement of the whole transaction, verified 
by contemporary documents, and corresponding 
with the narrative we have given above. To 
that communication the candid and inquisitive 
reader is referred for a full elucidation of a mat- 
ter, which is still occasionally perverted by the 
spirit of party. 

It is an honorable proof of Mr. Madison's love 
of truth and justice, that he should have taken 
the pains thus to explain, and set in its proper 
light before posterity, a momentary change of 
position by the public authorities of his State, 
made in opposition to his opinions, and by which 

1 Ramsay, History of the Uni- 2 it W JH be found also in the 
ted States, vol. n. pp. 300, 301, Appendix, pp. xix.-xxii., to the 
and Pitkin, Civil and Political first volume of the Madison De- 
History of the United States, vol. bates. 
II. p. 97 



250 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

his public action was, in no small degree, coun- 
tervailed and compromised. How much he felt 
this change of position on public grounds, (for 
personal considerations were never allowed to in- 
fluence him,) appears from a letter addressed by 
him several months afterwards, in the freedom 
of confidential intercourse, to his friend, Judge 
Pendleton. The eager expectations of the coun- 
try, with regard to naval succours, had been 
already doomed to a long series of disappoint- 
ments, when intelligence was at last received 
that the French and Spanish fleets had formed 
a junction for the investment of Gibraltar, and 
also to attempt some enterprise against Minorca, 
— objects, both of them, exclusively of Spanish 
policy. On this occasion, Mr. Madison gave vent 
to his feelings in the following indignant reflec- 
tions : — 

" Thus the selfish projects of Spain not only 
withhold from us the cooperation of her own 
armaments, but divert, in part, that of our ally; 
and yet we are to reward her with a cession of 
what constitutes the value of the finest part of 
America ! " x 

It happened, fortunately for the country, that 
our minister in Spain, at that time, took the 
same wise and sagacious views of our national 
interests connected with the navigation of the 
Mississippi, that had so deeply impressed them- 
selves upon the mind of Mr. Madison. Mr. Jay 

1 Manuscript letter of IStli of* September, 1781. 



MR. MADISON VINDICATES MR. JAY. 251 

had been steadily opposed to any concession to 
the demands of Spain on this point. In a letter 
of the 3d of October, 1781, to the President of 
Congress, after receiving the new instructions of 
that body, he went so fir as to say : " The ces- 
sion of this navigation will, in my opinion, ren- 
der a future war with Spain unavoidable ; and I 
shall look upon my subscribing the one, as fixing 
the certainty of the other." * With these impres- 
sions, in the execution of his instructions he 
most properly accompanied the proposed conces- 
sion with a formal declaration that the United 
States would not consider themselves bound by 
the offer in future, if not now frankly accepted 
and with suitable equivalents rendered for it. 2 
The fatuity and all-absorbing selfishness of Spain 
made the negotiation unavailing ; and the ill- 
advised concession, happily, led to no result. 

It appeared from Mr. Pendleton's answer to 
the letter of Mr. Madison cited above, that he 
had never before been informed that the pro- 
posed concession had been sanctioned by a reso- 
lution of the legislature of Virginia ; but, on the 
contrary, had heard insinuations that it originated 
with the American minister, Mr. Jay. This gave 
Mr. Madison another occasion of rendering that 
homage to truth and justice which he never 
failed to pay, whether an individual or a public 
body was concerned; at the same time that he 

1 Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution, vol. vu. p. 4G4. 

2 Idem, pp. 498, 499. 



252 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

renewed the expression of the deep regret with 
which he could not but regard the proceed- 
ings that had taken place in the legislature 
of his own State. He thus writes to Mr. Pen- 
dleton : — 

"When you get a sight of the resolution of 
the General Assembly referred to in your favor 
of the 8th instant, you will readily judge from 
the tenor of it what steps would be taken by 
the delegates. It necessarily submitted the fate 
of the object in question to the discretion and 
prospects of the gentleman," (the American min- 
ister, Mr. Jay,) " whom reports, it seems, have 
arraigned to you ; but who, I am bound in jus- 
tice to testify, has entirely supported the char- 
acter which he formerly held with you. I am 
somewhat surprised that you had never before 
known of the resolution just mentioned," (that 
of the 2d of January, 1781,) "especially as, what 
is indeed much more surprising, it was both de- 
bated and passed with open doors and a full 
gallery. This circumstance alone must have de- 
feated any reservations attached to it." 1 

The reader will be gratified to learn that as 
soon as the menacing crisis was over, both the 
new instructions of Virginia to her delegates in 
Congress, and those of Congress to the minister 
in Spain, were revoked ; and that this great 
question remained open, to be settled, in more 
tranquil times, upon its own grave merits, and 

1 Manuscript letter of 16th of October, 1781. 



ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS RENEWED. 253 

a deliberate consideration of all the vast interests 
connected with it. 

While Congress was thus earnestly bent on 
strengthening the country by means of foreign 
connections, it did not overlook the vital sources 
of internal harmony and strength. Among the 
measures necessary for an efficient and success- 
ful prosecution of the contest, the completion of 
the Articles of Confederation, which still remained 
without legal obligation upon any of the parties 
in consequence of the persevering refusal of a 
single State to close the compact, was justly 
deemed, an object of paramount importance. It 
was not so much on account of any intrinsic 
energy in the powers conferred on Congress by 
that instrument, that its final consummation was 
now earnestly desired, as because the enemies 
of the country, both foreign and domestic, would 
be encouraged to entertain hopes, however illu- 
sory, of detaching some of the States from the 
common cause, so long as there was no acknowl- 
edged obligatory bond of union between them ; 
and also because the absence of such a bond 
caused a certain distrust to be cast upon all 
the national engagements entered into by Con- 
gress. 

These considerations were, with great force 
and eloquence, urged upon the States in the cir- 
cular address of Congress with which the Articles 
of Confederation were accompanied, when those 
articles, after much embarrassment and delay, 

VOL. I. 22 



254 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

were finally agreed upon by that body in No- 
vember, 1777. 

" This business," they say, " equally intricate 
and important, has, in its progress, been attended 
with uncommon embarrassment and delay, which 
the most anxious solicitude and persevering dili- 
gence could not prevent. To form a permanent 
union, accommodated to the opinions and wishes 
of the delegates of so many States differing in 
habits, produce, commerce, and internal police, 
was found to be a work which nothing but 
time and reflection, conspiring with a disposition 
to conciliate, could mature and accomplish. 

• •••■•••• 

" We have reason to regret the time which 
has elapsed in preparing this plan for considera- 
tion. With additional solicitude, we look forward 
to that which must be necessarily sjDent, before it 
can be ratified. Every motive loudly calls upon 
us to hasten its conclusion. More than any 
other consideration, it will confound our foreign 
enemies, defeat the flagitious practices of the 
disaffected, strengthen and confirm our friends, 
support our public credit, restore the value of 
our money, enable us to maintain our fleets 
and armies, and add weight and respect to our 
councils at home and to our treaties abroad." l 

Virginia was the first of the States to respond 
to this urgent and patriotic appeal. The Articles 
of Confederation were laid before her legislature 

1 See Address in Secret Journals of Congress, vol. I. pp. 362-365. 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 255 

on the 9th clay of December, 1777, and on the 
15th of that month, a resolution was unani- 
mously adopted approving the plan, and author- 
izing the delegates of the State in Congress to 
ratify it, " in the name and on behalf of this 
Commonwealth ; " for which purpose they were 
required to attend in their places in Congress 
on or before the 10th day of March next. 1 
Nine other States in succession, in the early 
part of the ensuing year, severally empowered 
their delegates to ratify the confederation on 
their behalf. 

The subject was again taken up in Congress 
in June, 1778, when various amendments, pro- 
posed by some of the States, were considered, 
and all of them rejected. On the 9th day of 
the following month, the articles were formally 
ratified and signed in Congress by the delegates 
of eight States. The delegates of North Carolina 
and Georgia, who had been duly empowered by 
their constituents to sign, not being present on 
that occasion, attended in their places a few days 
afterwards, and added their signatures. 

New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland still with- 
held their ratifications. Congress, in a special 
address of the 10th of July, 1778, renewed their 
appeal to the non-acceding States. 

" Intent," say they, " upon the present and 
future security of these United States, Congress 
has never ceased to consider a confederacy as 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1777, p. 80 



256 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the great principle of union, which can alone 
establish the liberty of America, and exclude for- 
ever the hopes of its enemies. Influenced by 
considerations so powerful, and duly weighing 
the difficulties which oppose the expectations of 
any plan being formed that can exactly meet the 
wishes and obtain the approbation of so many 
States, differing essentially in various points, Con- 
gress have, after mature deliberation, agreed 
to adopt without amendments the confederation 
transmitted to the several States for their appro- 
bation It now remains only with you 

to conclude the glorious compact, which, by 
uniting the wealth, strength, and councils of the 
whole, may bid defiance to external violence and 
internal dissensions, whilst it secures the public 
credit both at home and abroad." x 

New Jersey, yielding to this renewed appeal 
of Congress, on the 20th of November, 1778, 
authorized her delegates to ratify the confed- 
eration on her behalf; and on the 1st day of 
February, 1779, the State of Delaware followed 
the example. 

Maryland alone now stood out in opposition 
to the compact. Her legislature, on the 15th 
day of December, 1778, adopted a formal decla- 
ration, and accompanied it with elaborate instruc- 
tions to their delegates in Congress, announcing 
their inflexible purpose not to accede to the con- 
federation, until a certain amendment, which had 

1 Secret Journals of Congress, vol. I. pp. 419, 420. 



OPPOSITION OF MARYLAND. 257 

already been proposed by them to Congress and 
rejected by that body, should be first obtained. 1 
The dissatisfaction of Maryland, which placed her 
in this attitude of recalcitrant opposition to the 
confederacy, had its source in the large extent 
of unappropriated Western lands that fell within 
the territorial limits of some of the States. The 
articles of confederation, in declaring that " no 
State shall be deprived of territory for the ben- 
efit of the United States," as well as by the 
general reservation of the rights of sovereignty 
to each State, were supposed to guarantee these 
lands to the several States within whose limits 
they lay; and the object of the amendment in- 
sisted on by Maryland was to vest the entire 
disposition and control of them in Congress for 
the common benefit of all the States. 

Virginia, by the greater extent of her char- 
tered limits, as well as by the progress of her 
settlements in the interior, and also by conquest, 
was the principal claimant of Western territory ; 
and it was against her that the jealousy of the 
States, not possessing like advantages with her- 
self, was chiefly directed. In thfe proceedings of 
the legislature of Maryland, and especially in the 
language of the instructions to her delegates in 
Congress, the spirit of hostility and recrimination 
against Virginia was so strongly manifested that 
we are compelled to seek the explanation of 
these feelings in other circumstances than the 

1 See these papers in Hen. Stat. vol. x. pp. 549-556. 
22 * 



258 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

particular topic of debate. The old controversy 
which had grown, naturally enough, out of the 
fact of Maryland owing her existence, as a sep- 
arate Colony, to an infraction of the original 
chartered limits of Virginia, and yet more, per- 
haps, the unpleasant altercation which had taken 
place between the representative assemblies of 
the two Colonies, only a few years before this 
period, on the subject of Governor Eden, 1 evi- 
dently infused their bitter memories into the 
tone and temper with which the public author- 
ities of Maryland now discussed a grave question 
of public policy and constitutional right. 

As a matter of legal and constitutional right, 
Virginia had a firm and unshaken confidence in 
the validity of her claim to the unappropriated 
lands within her original chartered limits, except 
so far as those limits had been modified by sub- 
sequent grants of the crown, or by the stipula- 
tions of the treaty of peace between England 
and France in 1763. It was a clear consequence 
of the Revolution, and of the system of federa- 
tive association between independent States which 
followed it, that the public lands, previously held 
by the crown in the several Colonies, devolved 
by that event upon the respective States within 
whose limits they were situated, and with whom 
abided all the rights of sovereignty that were 

1 Sec Journal of the Virginia American Archives, (4th series,) 
Convention of 1776, p. 30, under vol. VI. pp. 732-738, 806,807,and 
date of the 31st of May ; and also 1505, 1506. 



TERRITORIAL RIGHTS OF VIRGINIA. 259 

not expressly delegated to Congress. It was, 
also, a well understood canon of American jmblic 
law, established by invariable usage both before 
and after the Revolution, that no legal title 
could be acquired by the purchase of lands from 
the Indians, unless with the consent or by the 
act of the territorial sovereign, or government 
holding the political dominion over them. 1 It 
was upon these broad and palpable principles, 
which have been since repeatedly recognized by 
the highest tribunals of the country, that the 
territorial claim of Virginia rested. 

But while she defended that claim, as an un- 
questionable legal right, against those who wan- 
tonly or perversely assailed it, she never sought 
to make use of it in any selfish and unsocial 
spirit. On the contrary, she had already offered 
to admit the other States to a free participation 
of her Western lands as a fund to provide boun- 
ties to their soldiers on continental establish- 
ment, equally with her own ; and in the very 
remonstrance, which she had been driven to ad- 
dress to Congress against the encouragement 
given to the pretensions of certain land compa- 
nies in violation of her rights, she emphatically 
repeated her willingness to make sacrifices to the 
common interest in any just and reasonable man- 
ner, so as to remove the " ostensible " causes of de- 
lay to the final ratification and completion of the 

1 See Decision of Supreme Court of the United States in Johnson 
v M'Intosh, 8 Wheat. 



260 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

articles of confederation. She protested the more 
earnestly against the patronage extended to the 
illegal claims of these land companies, because 
such patronage was plainly inconsistent with the 
specious object, professed by her adversaries, of 
ma kino- the Western lands a common fund for 
the benefit of the States. " It was, moreover, 
notorious," she alleged, "that several men of 
great influence in some of the neighbouring 
States were concerned in partnerships with Lord 
Dunmore and others"; and that their object, in 
opposing the territorial rights of Virginia, was 
only to secure for themselves, under pretended 
purchases from the Indians, valuable and exten- 
sive tracts of country lying on the Ohio, and 
between the Ohio and Mississippi. 1 

Although the ungenerous assaults made upon 
the title of Virginia to her Western lands were 
certainly not well calculated to produce in her 
a temper of concession, her zeal for the common 
cause rose superior to her just resentments. All 
her leading statesmen united in recommending 
a liberal cession of her territorial claims, in or- 
der to promote a more cordial harmony and con- 
cord among the States, and to hasten the final 
ratification of the confederation. Mr. Madison, 
in his correspondence of that day, constantly and 
persuasively advocated the policy of conciliation 
and abnegation. Writing, on the 17th of Octo- 

1 See Remonstrance of General Assembly of Virginia, in Hen. Stat 
vol. X. pp. 557-559. 



CONCILIATORY SPIRIT OF VIRGINIA. 261 

ber, 1780, to his colleague Mr. Jones, who was 
then in attendance on the legislature of the 
State, after communicating to him an unfavora- 
ble decision which had just taken place in Con- 
gress on a proposition made by the delegates of 
Virginia with regard to a cession of the Western 
lands, he adds : " I hope this incident in Con- 
gress will not discourage any measures of the 
Assembly which would otherwise have been taken 
for the object of ratifying the confederation. 
Under the cautions I have suggested, they may 
still be taken with perfect security." 1 

Among the most distinguished and influential 
of Mr. Madison's correspondents of that period 
was Judge Edmund Pendleton, whose high posi- 
tion and career we have had frequent occasion 
to mention. That wise and eminent man, in re- 
plying to a letter he had received from Mr. 
Madison on this same subject, expressed himself 
in the following terms, which illustrate the ele- 
vated principles on which Virginia was disposed 
to act in the sacrifices she was called on to 
make for the general good, and, at* the same 
time, the force of the impediments that had been 
raised in the way of that disposition by unrea- 
sonable and intemperate attacks on her rights. 

"I have thought long ago," said Mr. Pendle- 
ton, "that 'twas high time the confederation was 
completed, and feared some foreign powers might 
entertain, from its delay, suspicions of some se- 

1 Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 54. 



262 LIFE AND TIMES. OF MADISON. 

cret disunion among the States, or a latent in- 
tention in Congress to keep it open for purposes 
unworthy of them. I am happy to hear it is 
resumed, and think it becoming, and indeed an 
indispensable duty in this, as in all other social 
compacts, for the contracting members to yield 
points to each other, in order to meet as near 
the centre of the general good as the jarring 
interests can be brought ; and did it depend upon 
my opinion, I would not hesitate to yield a very 
large portion of our back lands to accomplish 
this purpose, except for the reason which Shak- 
speare has put into the mouth of Hotspur. 1 In 
reason and justice, the title of Virginia to her 
Western territory can no more be questioned 
than to any other spot in it. The point was 
fully and warmly agitated in Congress, and de- 
termined in her favor. Twelve States were sat- 
isfied, and agreed to confederate ; and yet one 
stops the whole business, setting, up her judg- 
ment in opposition to so many! Yield to her 
in this, and may she not play the same game 
to gain any future point of interest?" 

After some other remarks respecting the course 
pursued by Maryland in this affair, he adds : — 

" With the Assembly, it must rest to deter- 
mine what they wall yield to harmonize and 

1 Judge Pendleton, doubtless, here refers to what Hotspur says to 
Glendower, in the territorial dispute which arose between them : — 

I do not care ; I'll give thrice so much land, 
To any well-deserving friend : 
But, in the way of bargain, mark ye me, 
I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair. 



CONGRESS RECOMMENDS CESSIONS. 263 

cement the union: and it must be acknowledged 
that in other respects, particularly in the field, 
Maryland has maintained a very worthy char- 
acter in the contest." He concludes : a It is 
time for me to leave the subject to those whose 
province it is to decide on it. It shall be 
mine to acquiesce." * 

On the 6th of September, 1780, Congress, 
again setting forth with impressive solemnity 
the weighty considerations which demanded an 
immediate completion of the confederation, ap- 
pealed to the States having claims to Western 
territory to make a "liberal surrender of a por- 
tion of those claims" for the sake of general 
harmony and union ; and, at the same time, 
called earnestly on the legislature of Maryland 
to authorize their delegates in Congress to sub- 
scribe the articles, which now wanted only their 
signature to clothe them with an unanimous and 
obligatory sanction. The legislature of New York 
had already passed an act authorizing their dele- 
gates in Congress to fix and define the western 
boundary of that State ; which, though involving 
no surrender of any substantial territorial claim, 
was yet considered a step in the path of con- 
ciliation. 

1 Manuscript letter of Judge Mason. See his able letter to 

Pendleton to Mr. Madison, 25th Mr. Jones in the Bland Papers, 

of September, 1780. Among the vol. u. pp. 125-130, which was 

distinguished statesmen of Vir- probably the first digested outline 

ginia, who recommended a liberal of the conditions of the cession 

spirit of concession with regard to afterwards made, 
her Western lands, was George 



264 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The General Assembly of Virginia, which met 
some few weeks after the above-mentioned pro- 
ceedings of Congress, " preferring," as they de- 
clared, " the good of their country to every 
object of smaller importance," yielded up to 
Congress, for the benefit of the United States, 
the whole of that immense territory claimed and 
possessed by her northwest of the Ohio, and ex- 
tending thence to the Mississippi and the lakes. 1 
To the cession of this magnificent domain were 
annexed certain conditions of equity and justice, 
both with regard to herself and the confederacy, 
which, although they furnished the ground of 
much captious opposition for a year or two, as 
we shall hereafter see, were yet finally accepted 
by Congress, with slight modifications, as reason- 
able and satisfactory. 

The proffered cession of Virginia was passed 
by her legislature on the 2d of January, 1781. 
On the 2d day of February following, the legis- 
lature of Maryland passed an act, — apparently 
in a grudging spirit, and placing her compliance 
to the credit of the wishes and opinions of "our 
illustrious ally," — which empowered her dele- 
gates in Congress to subscribe and ratify the 
articles of confederation. Her long and perse- 
vering resistance to the wishes and example of 
her sister States had caused two of them, Vir- 
ginia and Connecticut, to give their delegates 
the necessary powers, and even to propose for- 

l Sec Hen. Stat., vol. x. pp. 564-567. 



CONFEDERATION FINALLY RATIFIED. 265 

mally in Congress, to close the Confederacy 
without her ; 1 and a distinguished authority has 
expressed the opinion that it was the apprehen- 
sion of being excluded from the Union, which 
formed, at last, her motive to give a reluctant 
consent to the Confederation. 2 Her accession, 
however, was joyfully welcomed by Congress 
and the country as consummating the original 
bond of federal union, and blighting thencefor- 
ward the malignant hopes and intrigues of the 
enemies of American liberty. 

Thursday, the 1st of March, 1781, was fixed 
as the clay for completing the Confederation by 
the signature of the delegates of Maryland ; and 
a committee, consisting of Mr. Walton, Mr. Mad- 
ison, and Mr. Matthews, was appointed to con- 
sider and report a mode for announcing the 
event to the public. According to their report, 
the Board of War and the Board of Admiralty 
were directed to take order for the public 
proclamation of the fact, as soon as it was 
consummated : it was, moreover, to be officially 
and specially communicated to the executives of 
the several States ; to the American ministers 
abroad, who were instructed to notify it to the 
courts at which they resided ; to the minister 
of France in America ; and to the commander- 
in-chief of the American army, with a request 
to announce the same to the troops under 

1 Secret Journals of Congress, 2 Judge Marshall, in his Life of 
vol. I. pp. 431-433, and 438, 439. Washington, vol. I. p. 430. 

VOL. I. 23 



266 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

his command. These unwonted ceremonies suffi- 
ciently attest the deep sense which was then 
felt, both in Congress and by the nation, of the 
supreme importance of closing, on the eve of 
the decisive crisis of the great contest, the arti- 
cles of plighted faith by which the States were 
held together in a common and vital struggle. 

O DO 



CHAPTER IX. 

Plan of Military Operations discussed in Congress — Critical Situa- 
tion of the Southern States — Colonel Benjamin Harrison sent by 
Virginia to represent to Congress the Necessity of more liberal 
Arrangements for the Defence of the South — Mr. Madison gives 
his zealous Aid to the Mission of Colonel Harrison ■ — ■ Measures 
adopted by Congress on the Occasion — Virginia becomes the prin- 
cipal Theatre of the War by the Invasion of Cornwallis — Reduced 
to great Exhaustion by her Exertions in Aid of the Southern States 

— Long-continued Inattention of Congress, and apparent Indiffer- 
ence of Northern States, give Rise to strong Feelings of Dissatis- 
faction — Energetic Remonstrance prepared for Adoption of the 
Legislature — Withdrawn on Intelligence of the Result of Colonel 
Harrison's Mission — General Lafayette sent to Virginia — Legis- 
lature dispersed by Tarlton — Proposition for a Dictator — General 
NeTson elected Governor — Able and skilful Conduct of Lafayette 

— Washington and Rochambeau march with the Allied Army to 
the Aid of Virginia — Letter of Mr. Madison describing their Pas- 
sage through Philadelphia — Count De Grasse, with the French 
Fleet, arrives in the Chesapeake — Siege of York — Surrender of 
Cornwallis. 

As the period approached for the opening of 
another campaign, the attention of the States, as 
well as of Congress, was anxiously turned to the 
plan of military operations to be adopted. The 



268 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Southern States had now become the principal 
theatre of the war, and naturally expected, there- 
fore, that arrangements of suitable efficiency 
would be made for their protection and defence. 
The commander-in-chief, while his presence and 
that of the main body of the army were still 
required at the North by considerations of gen- 
eral and overruling importance, was keenly alive 
to the necessity of vigorous and enlarged pro- 
visions for the safety of the South. In a confi- 
dential letter to his friend and military companion, 
Colonel John Laurens, even as early as the sprmg 
of the last year, when the fate of Charleston was 
trembling in the balance, he intimated how agree- 
able it would be to him to go in person to the 
South, if the exigencies of the common service 
should, in the view of Congress, permit it, though 
obvious scruples forbade such a suggestion ema- 
nating from himself. 1 

In Congress, on the 5th of August, 1780, at 
the instance of the delegates of South Carolina 
and Georgia, a resolution was adopted, but in 
very guarded terms, communicating to the com- 
mander-in-chief, as the sense of that body, that 
a portion of the land and naval forces, both 
of our ally and of the United States, should be 
employed, when it shall appear to him most 
convenient, for the expulsion of the enemy from 
those two States ; .... a so, however, as not to 
interfere with any plan of operation already 

1 See Sparks's Washington, vol. vil. p. 23, 24. 



DANGERS OF SOUTHERN STATES. 269 

formed, as the more immediate object of the 
campaign." This restriction evidently referred 
to the combined movement then contemplated 
against the British army occupying the city and 
environs of New York, and rendered inoperative 
the rest of the resolution. 

Virginia was the pivot State on which the 
preparations for the defence of the South mainly 
turned. As such, on the 24th of May, 1780, she 
addressed an earnest representation to Congress, 
calling their attention to the systematic and con- 
centrated efforts then made by the ■ enemy for 
the conquest of the Southern States, the inade- 
quacy of the local means of defence, and the 
necessity of speedy and powerful reinforcements 
of continental troops, as well as of additional 
supplies of arms and munitions. 1 The tempest 
of war, driven on by a victorious general who 
had overrun both of the Carolinas, soon ap- 
proached her own borders ; and, on the 2d of 
December, 1780, the Assembly adopted the fol- 
lowing resolution : — 

" Resolved, That the General Assembly will ap- 
point some proper person to lay before Congress 
a clear state of the Avar in this quarter, the re- 
sources of this State in men, money, provisions, 
clothing, and other necessaries, and to solicit the 
necessary aids either from our sister States or 
European allies, and to concert with Congress, 
the minister of France, and General Washington, 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, May session, 1780, p. 20. 
23* 



270 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON 

the proceedings necessary in the present con- 
juncture of affairs in the South." l 

The matters embraced by this resolution were 
most proper subjects of representation to the 
central authority charged with the common de- 
fence ; but the unusual expedient of appointing 
a special envoy, for the purpose of making the 
representation, does not appear to have been 
conceived with a very scrupulous delicacy and 
regard to the delegates of the State in Congress, 
by whom the duty would doubtless have been 
discharged with equal fidelity and effect. The 
proposition originated with Mr. Henry. 2 On the 
choice of the envoy, there was an equal vote 
between Mr. Benjamin Harrison, Speaker of the 
House of Delegates, and Mr. Richard Henry Lee. 
The latter withdrawing his name, Mr. Harrison 
was declared elected. 

Letters of Mr. Madison to his colleague Mr. 
Jones, and to his friend Judge Pendleton, writ- 
ten at the time, show that he was not insensible 
to the apparent slight implied, if not intended, 
by this proceeding. 3 No personal susceptibility, 
however, was permitted to derogate from the 
conscientious zeal and manly dignity with which 
he discharged his representative trust. The se- 
cret journals of Congress show that, on the 1st 
of January, 1781, he brought to the notice of 

1 See Journal of House of Del- Joseph Jones to Mr. Madison, dat- 
egates, October session, 1780, p. ed the 2d of January, 1781. 

35. 3 s ee Madison Debates and Cor- 

2 See manuscript letter of Mr. respondence, vol. i. pp. 72 and 81. 



ARRANGEMENTS FOR THEIR DEFENCE. 271 

the body a despatch of Mr. Adams containing 
the intelligence that the operations of the enemy 
were to be directed, during the ensuing campaign, 
against the South ; a copy of which, he moved, 
should be transmitted to the commander-in-chief, 
and that " he be informed it is the desire of 
Congress he should immediately make such dis- 
tribution of the' forces under his command, in- 
cluding those of our allies under Count Eocham- 
beau, as will most effectually counteract the 
views of the enemy and support the Southern 
States." The motion was adopted ; but not until 
it had undergone a modification, which changed 
its character and materially impaired its direct- 
ness and vahie by simply asking the opinion of 
the commander-in-chief on the naked question of 
transferring the French forces from their position 
in Rhode Island to some post in Virginia. 1 

Mr. Madison was one of the committee ap- 
pointed to confer with Colonel Harrison on the 
subjects of his mission. How earnestly he labored 
to promote its success, is vouched as well by the 
spirit of the motion previously made by him, to 
which we have just referred, as by the nature 
of the resolutions which Congress, upon the rec- 
ommendation of that committee, finally adopted. 
By those resolutions, which were passed on the 
20th of February, 1781, the Southern army was 
henceforward to be composed of all the regular 
troops from Pennsylvania to Georgia inclusive ; 

1 Secret Journals of Congress, vol. i. pp. 179-181. 



272 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the Pennsylvania line was ordered to join the 
army in Virginia without loss of time, by de- 
tachments as they may be in readiness to march ; 
and transportation and supplies of every descrip- 
tion, clothing, tents, arms, and ammunition were 
to be promptly furnished, for the purchase of 
which specie funds were to be at once placed at 
the disposal of the Board of War? 

The immediate moral effect of these resolu- 
tions was to abate the strong feeling of dissatis- 
faction which was beginning to be manifested in 
Virginia under the seeming abandonment in 
which she had been left by Congress and her 
sister States of the North, in the dangers which 
now surrounded her. In every stage of the war, 
she felt that she had exerted herself to the ut- 
most of her ability for the common cause, both 
in the North and in the South. Since the fall 
of Charleston, which had enabled the enemy to 
direct his operations almost exclusively against 
the States of South and North Carolina, she had 
poured out all her resources of men, money, and 
supplies with unstinted liberality, on the call of 
Congress and the commander-in-chief, for the de- 
fence of that portion of the Confederacy. This 
she had done, to the entire neglect of her own 
safety. 

When, in the winter and spring of 1781, she 
found herself suddenly invaded by a hostile ar- 
mament, — which, having the undisputed com- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. m. p. 379. 



EXERTIONS OF VIRGINIA. 273 

mand of the water, was able in a few days to 
penetrate, by her bays and rivers, to the very 
heart of her territory, — she was so exhausted 
by the efforts she had made in other and distant 
fields, — her magazines, her arsenals, her coffers, 
her military stations all emptied, — that she was 
for. the moment incapable of organizing any 
effective resistance. The painful sacrifice which 
this cost her, both in her pride of character and 
her local interests, she had been exhorted to 
bear for the paramount interests of the general 
cause. 

"As the evils you have to apprehend from 
these predatory incursions," wrote General Wash- 
ington on the 6th of February, 1781, to the gov- 
ernor of the State, u are not to be compared to 
the injury to the common cause, and with the 
danger to your State in particular, from the con- 
quest of the States to the southward of you, I 
am persuaded the attention to your immediate 
safety will not divert you from the measures 
intended to reinforce the Southern army, and 
put it in a condition to stop the progress of the 
enemy in that quarter." 1 

The exhortation was faithfully heeded. The 
presence of the detestable Arnold in his entrench- 
ments at Portsmouth, though requiring a large 
body of militia to watch and restrain his parri- 
cidal enterprises, did not prevent the sending of 
timely reinforcements to General Greene ; which 

1 See Sparks's Washington, vol. vn. p. 402. 



274 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

enabled him to recross the Dan, and in turn to 
pursue and offer battle to the adversary before 
whom he had lately been compelled to retreat. 

But Virginia herself was now the doomed and 
selected theatre of the war. The British gen- 
eral, Cornwallis, wrote to Sir Henry Clinton at 
New York, — 

"I cannot help expressing my wishes that the 
Chesapeake Bay may become the seat of the 
war. Until Virginia is, in a manner, subdued, 
our hold upon the Carolinas must be difficult, if 
not precarious." * In pursuance of this policy, 
after reposing his troops a few days at Wilming- 
ton in North Carolina, whither he had repaired 
after the battle of Guilford Court-House, he re- 
newed his advance upon Virginia, 

In the mean time, Greene had determined to 
push on to Camden, in the hope of drawing 
Cornwallis after him, or, if he did not succeed 
in that, of recovering the posts in South Caro- 
lina which were held by the forces under Lord 
Eawdon. The result of this strategic movement 
as it turned out, was to leave Virginia, naked 
and unsupported, to the double invasion of Corn- 
wallis from the South, and Arnold and Phillips 
from the North. 

Even before the arrival of the victorious legions 
of Cornwallis, the governor of the State had re- 
peatedly urged upon Congress, through letters to 
its President, the necessity of prompt aids, of 

1 Cited in note to Sparks's Washington, vol. Vii. p. 458. 



SUPPOSED INDIFFERENCE OF THE NORTH. 275 

both men and arms, in the position of actual as 
well as impending danger in which the State 
was placed. "An enemy three thousand strong," 
he said, " not a regular in the State, nor arms 
to put in the hands of the militia, are indeed 
discouraging circumstances." 1 

While Congress, and the other States, contin- 
ued inattentive to these representations, it is not 
surprising that Virginia, with the consciousness 
of what she had done and suffered for the com- 
mon cause, should exhibit a keen sensibility to 
the injustice of such neglect. It was under these 
circumstances, and before information had been 
received of the result of Colonel Harrison's mis- 
sion, that it was proposed in the General Assem- 
bly to address a remonstrance to Congress upon 
the subject. Among the papers of Mr. Madison, 
we find the draught of such a remonstrance by 
a member, which Judge Pendleton sent to Mr. 
Madison as indicating the deep, and, as he con- 
sidered them, just and well-founded complaints, 
which the antecedent neglect of Congress and 
apparent indifference of the other States, had 
excited? Although the answer finally given to 
Colonel Harrison's mission prevented this paper 

' See letter of the 31st of March, transmitted was supposed by Mr. 

1781, to President of Congress, in Madison to be the production of 

Jefferson's Writings, vol. i. 215, John Taylor of Caroline, the rela- 

216. tive and protege o? Judge Pendle- 

2 See manuscript letter of Judge ton, and at that time a member of 

Pen.dleton to Mr. Madison, of the the General Assembly. 
26th of March, 1781. The paper 



276 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

from receiving an official character, yet as a jus- 
tification of Virginia from illiberal insinuations 
which are sometimes, even now, brought against 
her revolutionary fame; and as a condensed and 
eloquent presentation of public transactions in 
the light in which they appeared to an intelli- 
gent observer, it seems properly to belong to 
the history of the times. As such, we insert it 
here, omitting only the formal introductory part. 

Speaking in the name of the General Assembly 
of Virginia, it says, — 

"'Tis not from an impulse of vanity that they 
would remember past transactions, but it is ne- 
cessary in order to wrest Virginia from that load 
of obloquy with which she hath been oppressed 
by those who rashly judge from detached facts, 
and not from a collective view of public transac- 
tions. Ere the war began, we heard the cries of 
our brethren at Boston, and paid the tax clue to 
distress. We accompanied our Northern allies 
during almost every progressive stride it made, 
where danger seemed to solicit our ardor. We 
bled with them at Quebec, at Boston, at Har- 
lsem, at White Plains, at Fort Washington, at 
Brandywine, at Germantown, at Mud Island, at 
White Marsh, at Saratoga, at Monmouth, and at 
Stony Point. We almost stood alone at Trenton 
and Princeton, and during the winter campaign 
which followed. 

" But when we came to look for our Northern 
allies, after we had thus exhausted our powers 



DRAUGHT OF A REMONSTRANCE. 277 

in their defence, when Carolina and Georgia 
became the theatre of war, they were not to 
be found. We felt that they were absent at 
Stono, at Savannah, at Charleston, at Monk's 
Corner, at Buford's defeat, at Lannean's Ferry, 
at Camden, at King's Mountain, at the Cow- 
pens, and at Georgetown. Whilst we are continu- 
ing our utmost exertions to repair the mighty 
losses sustained in defending almost every State 
in the Union, we at length find ourselves in- 
vaded, and threatened with the whole weight 
of the American war. When the Northern States 
were attacked, the sluices of paper credit were 
not only opened, but the force of all America 
concentred to the point of danger. Now, North- 
ern and Southern departments are formed, calcu- 
lated more to starve the only active war, than 
for the purpose of common defence. 

" Let it be remembered that Georgia and South 
Carolina are lost, that North Carolina, in a 
state of uncertainty from continual alarms, can- 
not furnish supplies, and that Maryland hath 
only sent those of men. Virginia, then, impov- 
erished by defending the Northern department, 
exhausted by the Southern war, now finds the 
whole weight of it on her shoulders. Even after 
these departments were formed, Congress called 
for, and, by a great exertion on our part, actu- 
ally received half a million for the Northern 
army. The war having converted its rage from 
the Northern to the Southern States, the former, 

VOL. I. 24 



278 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

thus exonerated from the immediate obligations 
of the Union, might have seized the opportunity 
of completing their levies, which would have en- 
abled them to return with accumulated vigor to 
our assistance. But they were employed in avail- 
ing themselves of resolutions of Congress, by 
which they got rid of their State paper at the 
expense of the Union; whilst Virginia was left 
struggling; under that unwieldy load from which 
no exertions could disengage her, during the con- 
tinuation of those enormous expenses she was 
forced to yield to or leave the Southern war to 
expire through famine. 

" Thus situated, our only resource is the 
wretched one of more paper money, in addition 
to enormous taxes, which are the more pecu- 
liarly distressing as they must be collected whilst 
near ten thousand of our citizens, exclusive of 
our regular troops, are in the field. A tax of 
four and a fourth per cent, on a specie valuation 
of property; a tax of thirty pounds of tobacco 
and two bushels of corn on each tithable ; a tax 
of three thousand beeves ; a tax of three thousand 
suits of clothes ; a tax of seventy-four wagons and 
teams, besides many occasional seizures and other 
collateral dues, all paid or to be paid in the pres- 
ent year, do, when added to the emissions of 
twenty-one millions of pounds in three months, 
prove that Virginia hath not been unmindful of 
the extraordinary efforts expected from her. 

"Thus exhausted with our former exertions, 



TESTIMONY OF HISTORY. 279 

thus straining every nerve in present defence, — 
pressed with a great hostile army, and threat- 
ened with a greater, — beset with enemies both 
savage and disciplined, — the Assembly of Vir- 
ginia do, in behalf of their State and in behalf 
of the common cause, in the most solemn man- 
ner summon the other States to their assistance. 
They demand aids of men, money, and every 
warlike munition. If they are denied, the con- 
sequences be on the heads of those who refuse 
them. The Assembly of Virginia call the world 
and future generations to witness that they have 
done their duty, that they have prosecuted 
the war with earnestness, and they are still 
ready so to act, in conjunction with the other 
States, as to prosecute it to a happy and glori- 
ous period." 1 

1 That the tone of this paper York to recruit the enemy in this 

was not without much to call for quarter, without any corresponding 

and justify it, in the delays of assistance to us? Surely not ; as 

Congress and the unconcern of it must produce the worst conse- 

the Northern States, is shown by quences. I am happy to find our 

the testimony and opinions of men people willing to exert themselves 

remarkable for the calmness of on this great occasion, but know 

their tempers and the cautious so- they are not alone able to support 

briety of their judgments. this burden, nor do I believe they 

Judge Pendleton, in writing to will submit to be duped." 

Mr. Madison on the 7th of April, Mr. Sparks, an historian of scru- 

1781, twelve days after he had pulous research and candor, and a 

transmitted the paper given above, citizen himself of the North, says, 

uses this language : — in his Life of Washington : — ■ 

" Do Congress mean to leave " The Eastern and Middle States 

the weight of this Southern war in particular, after the French 

entirely upon Virginia ? Or suffer troops had arrived in the country, 

our main army to remain idle spec- and the theatre of the Avar had 

"■ators of repeated drafts from New been transferred by the enemy to 



280 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

At length, the Marquis Lafayette was sent 
with a detachment of twelve hundred men to 
the relief of Virginia. This expedition had been 
planned by the ever watchful providence of the 
commander-in-chief early in February, and in anti- 
cipation of any action of Congress on the subject. 
It was originally projected with the view of cutting 
off Arnold, and depended for its success on the 
cooperation of the French fleet from Rhode Island. 
When that cooperation was arrested midway by 
an engagement between the two hostile fleets 
off the capes of the Chesapeake, the expedition 
under Lafayette, which had already reached An- 
napolis on its Southern destination, returned to 
the head of the bay. There he was met by 
new orders from the commander-in-chief, which, 
to his great delight, committed to him, with the 
detachment under his command, the general 
direction of the operations for the defence of 
Virginia. 

He hastened to the scene of his important 
military trust, and, by a forced march, arrived 
with his troops at Richmond just in time to 

the South, relapsed into a state of the Eastern and Middle States, 

comparative inactivity and indif- marched with reluctance to the 

ference, the more observable on southward, and showed strong 

account of the contrast it present- symptoms of discontent when they 

ed with the ardor, energy, and passed through Philadelphia. This 

promptitude which had previously had been foreseen by General 

characterized them." And after- Washington, and he urged the su- 

vvards, when at last the army was perintendent of finance to advance 

on its march to the South, he says, to them a month's pay in hard 

" The soldiers, being mostly from money." 



C0RNWALL1S INVADES VIRGINIA. 281 

prevent, with the assistance of the militia col- 
lected there, another occupation of the capital 
of the State by the enemy's forces under Gen- 
eral Phillips. The arrival a few clays afterwards 
of Lord Cornwallis, with his imposing and tri- 
umphant army, reduced the youthful general, 
charged with the defence of Virginia, to so great 
an inferiority of force as to put in requisition all 
his vigilance and conduct to avert the accom- 
plishment of the haughty boast of his adversary 
— "The boy shall not escape me." He effected, 
with admirable self-possession and skill, a retro- 
grade movement before, and almost in the pres- 
ence of, an advancing foe with largely superior 
numbers, until he reached the northern bank of 
the Rapidan ; where he awaited the expected 
reinforcement of the Pennsylvania troops under 
General Wayne. 

During this interval, the territory of the State 
lay open to the enterprises of the invader. Ex- 
peditions were pushed in various directions ; 
some to obtain possession of military stores; 
others to seize and destroy private property ; 
and one in particular under the noted partisan, 
Tarlton, to capture or disperse the legislature, 
with the governor, then at or near Charlottesville, 
a quiet and retired village in the midland region 
of Virginia. The legislature, on the approach of 
the enemy, adjourned in haste, to meet again in 
Staunton. Several of its members fell into the 
hands of the bold marauder; and Mr. Jefferson, 

24* 



282 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



who, upon the expiration, three clays before, 
of his second year in the office of governor, 
had declined a reelection, narrowly escaped cap- 
ture at his private residence in the neighbour- 
hood. 1 

For the moment, there seemed to be a gen- 
eral disorganization, both civil and military ; and 
it would certainly not appear an incredible cir- 

1 Many charges, more or less troops was irksome to the govern- 
enveriomed by the spirit of party or," introduces an isolated remark 
hostility, have been brought against from a letter of Judge Pendleton, 
the conduct of Mr. Jefferson at in these words : " It is also said the 
this crisis. They have been fully governor intends to resign. It is 
and ably answered by his biogra- a little cowardly to quit our posts 
pliers, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Ran- 
dall. Any notice of them here 
would be as superfluous as it is ex- 
traneous to the object of this work. 
But so extraordinary an attempt 
has been recently made to sustain 
the most reckless of all these im- 



in a bustling time." 

This excerpt is taken from a 
manuscript letter of Judge Pendle- 
ton to Mr. Madison of the 6th of 
November, 1780, now before us, 
and is separated from its context, 
essential to its true meaning. The 
putations, — that of personal ti- whole passage is as follows : " We 
aridity, — by the testimony of one had no House of Delegates on Sat- 
of Mr. Jefferson's most intimate urday last, which, with an empty 
friends, that, having in our pos- treasury, are circumstances unfa- 
session the document which has vorable at this juncture. Mr. 



been thus strangely applied, we 
feel called on to produce it, and let 
it speak for itself. 

In the publication referred to, 
(Hamilton's History of the Amer- 
ican Republic, see vol. n. p. 168, 
and also table of contents to chap, 
xxiv.,) Judge Pendleton is repre- 
sented as "charging Mr. Jefferson 
with cowardice," in the sense of 
unmanly fear before the enemy ; 
and in support of this representa- 
tion, the author, after stating that 
4 the near presence of British 



Henry has resigned his seat in 
Congress ; and I hear Mr. Jones 
intends it. It is also said the gov- 
ernor intends to resign. It is a lit- 
tle cowardly to quit our posts in a 
bustling time." The remark of 
Mr. Pendleton, it is seen, refers 
exclusively to a question of civil 
courage in times of public difficul- 
ty, and includes Mr. Henry and 
Mr. Madison's own colleague, Mr. 
Jones, equally with Mr. Jefferson, 
in its friendly and gentle expostu- 
lation. 



DICTATOR PROPOSED. 283 

cumstance if, in the midst of such pressing dan- 
gers, and in the absence of regular and efficient 
means of warding them off, the expedient of a 
temporary dictatorship should, as has been al- 
leged, have been suggested, on the reassembling 
of the legislature in Staunton. The wisdom and 
propriety of the suggestion will probably be 
judged by posterity, more with reference to the 
personage who was in contemplation for so great 
a trust, than upon general principles applied 
to an exceptional proposition in highly excep- 
tional times. There was but one man who, 
by surpassing weight of character, universal con- 
fidence, and multiplied proofs of virtue and wis- 
dom in the field and the council, — by deeds, 
not words, — could have merited such a trust 
at the hands of a free people ; and he would 
have declined it. 

The records of our public bodies afford no 
trace whatever of the formal presentation of such 
a proposition. The fact has, nevertheless, passed 
into history upon the positive averment of an 
eminent contemporary actor, 1 uncontradicted by 
any of his associates in the public service, and 
supported by tradition. The favored individual, 
upon whom it was believed the advocates of the 
scheme designed to confer this supreme ' and 
extra-constitutional magistracy, had already been 
governor of the State, and at the time, too, of 
an invasion, (that of General Matthew in the 

1 Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia. 



284 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



spring of 1779,) which had not been met with 
more of success than the present. 1 

While we are left, for the most part, to con- 
jecture and the uncertain lights of tradition 
with regard to what was contemplated in the 



i The project of appointing a 
dictator was twice agitated in the 
legislature of Virginia, according 
to Mr. Jefferson, during the war 
of the Revolution, — first in the 
autumn of 1776, and again in the 
summer of 1781. On both occa- 
sions, Mr. Henry is represented 
by the traditional accounts, which 
have been preserved by historians, 
as the person contemplated for this 
dangerous eminence by the patrons 
of the project. The biographer of 
Mr. Henry (Mr. Wirt) records a 
tradition that " the project was 
crushed," on the first occasion, by 
a desperate vow of tyrannicide 
vengeance uttered to Mr. Henry's 
step-brother by Colonel Archibald 
Cary, — a stern and jealous friend 
of republican freedom, who then 
occupied the post of Speaker of 
the Senate. On the second occa- 
sion, Mr. Jefferson (in Notes on 
Virginia) says " the pi*oposition 
wanted a few votes only of being 
passed ; " and Girardin, probably 
upon his authority, affirms that, 
" as in the previous instance of a 
similar attempt, the apprehension 
of personal danger produced a re- 
linquishment of the scheme." See 
Bark's History of Virginia, vol. IV. 
appendix 12. 

Mr. Wirt is very earnest in ex- 
culpating Mr. Henry from any par- 



ticipation in the project of a dic- 
tatorship, and thinks it could not 
have " received any countenance " 
from him. A different inference, 
however, so far, at least, as the 
principle of the measure is con- 
cerned, might not unreasonably be 
drawn from the language of Mr. 
Henry, seven years afterwards, in 
the convention of Virginia on the 
ratification of the Federal Consti- 
tution. Replying to the argument 
of danger to the public liberty from 
a probable resort to dictatorial pow- 
er, amid the civil confusions which, 
it was alleged, a rejection of the con- 
stitution would produce, he there 
said : " In making a dictator, we 
follow the example of the most glo- 
rious, magnanimous, and skilful na- 
tions. In great dangers, this power 
had been given. Rome had furnish- 
ed us with an illustrious example. 
America found a person worthy of 
the trust. She looked to Virginia 
for him. We gave a dictatorial 
power to hands that used it glori- 
ously, and which were rendered 
more glorious by surrendering it 
up. Where is there a breed of 
such dictators ? Shall we find a 
set of American Presidents of such 
a breed ? " See Robertson's De- 
bates of Virginia Convention of 
1788. 



LETTER OF RICHARD HENRY LEE. 285 

legislature of the State, the files of Mr. Madison's 
correspondence at the time afford authentic and 
indisputable evidence of a similar suggestion 
emanating from another distinguished source, 
but looking to a different and yet more exalted 
character as the object of the proposed trust. 
Richard Henry Lee, who, when not a delegate 
to Congress, had hitherto been a member of the 
legislature of the State, and was Speaker of the 
last House of Delegates, happened now to be in 
retirement at his residence in the county of 
Westmoreland. Hearing of the rapid and unre- 
sisted progress of Cornwallis, and of the recent 
occurrences at Charlottesville, which led to the 
disjoersion of the legislature and the interregnum 
in the office of governor, he addressed a letter 
to the delegates of Virginia in Congress, com- 
municating freely and earnestly his thoughts on 
what the crisis demanded for the public safety. 

This letter remained in the hands of Mr. Mad- 
ison as one of the delegates to whom it was 
addressed, and is now among his papers. The 
following extracts will disclose what were the 
views then entertained by Mr. Lee of both the 
danger and the remedy. The letter is dated at 
"Chantilly, June 12th, 1781," and begins: — 

"Dear Gentlemen : I am not informed who of 
our delegates remain at Congress, and, therefore, 
this letter is addressed to you, who I have good 
reason to suppose are yet there. The unhappy 



286 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

crisis of our country's fate demands the closest 
attention of all her sons, and calls for the united 
wisdom and the strongest exertions of all others 
who may be affected by our ruin." 

After recapitulating, in an impressive manner, 
the movements of the enemy and the events at 
Charlottesville, the writer proceeds: — 

" Upon the principle, therefore, of duty to my 
country, and deep affection for the liberties of 
America, I have ventured to give you this in- 
telligence of our true state, and mean to close 
it with my opinion of the remedy best fitted 
and most likely to baffle the designs of our en- 
emies, and to secure the liberty of this country. 
In the popularity, the judgment, and experience 
of General Washington, we can alone find the 
remed}^. Let Congress send him immediately to 
Virginia ; and, as the head of the Federal Union, 
let them possess the General with dictatorial 
power, until the General Assembly can be con- 
vened and have determined upon his powers ; 
and let it be recommended to the Assembly, 
when met, to continue this power for six, eight, 
or ten months, as the case may require. The 
General should be desired, on his arrival here, 
to call a full meeting of the legislature, where 
he shall appoint, to consider of the above plan. 

" Both ancient and modern times furnish pre- 
cedents to justify this procedure ; but if they 
did not, the present necessity not only justifies, 
but absolutely demands the measure. In the 



LETTER OF RICHARD HENRY LEE. 287 

winter of 1776, Congress placed such powers in 
the General, and repeated the same thing (if I 
mistake not) with regard to Pennsylvania in 
1777, after its new government was formed and 
organized 



"The inferiority of our army here to that of 
the enemy renders it very necessary that two or 
three thousand regulars be sent with the Gen- 
eral, or at least to follow him quickly, and, if 
they are to be 'got, accoutrements for a thousand 
horse, with a good supply of arms and ammuni- 
tion for infantry. The better to distract us, and 
keep our force divided, the armed vessels of the 
enemy are pushing vigorously into the rivers, 
and committing depredations on the shores both 
of bay and rivers. Is it not possible, by any 
solicitation, to procure a superior marine force 
for these Southern waters ? 

"It is reported here that General Wayne has 
objections to act under the Marquis' command. 
If there should be any disagreement, or any ob- 
jection of this kind, the consequences are too 
obvious to escape your notice, and will furnish 
an auxiliary reason for the commander-in-chief 
coming here, if any additional reason can be 
requisite, when the very being of the State de- 
mands it. 

"I am, dear gentlemen, 

" Sincerely and affectionately yours, 

"Richard. Henry Lee." 



288 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

On the very day that this letter was written, 
the legislature, being then reassembled at Staun- 
ton, elected General Thomas Nelson, who had 
for several years been in command of the militia 
of the State, to the office of governor. On the 
same day, also, Lafayette, having already effected 
a junction with the Pennsylvania troops under 
Wayne, was at Boswell's Ordinary, in Louisa 
County, 1 retracing his steps and making cautious 
approaches towards the enemy, who still retained 
a decided numerical superiority. Notwithstand- 
ing this advantage, the British general decided 
to retreat slowly to the lower country; and La- 
fayette, additionally reinforced by a body of rifle- 
men from the western part of the State, followed 
his adversary at a heedful distance, without as 
yet offering battle. 

This order of march of the two armies contin- 
ued, with little variation, till the 6th of July, 
when Cornwallis prepared to pass with his army, 
at Jamestown, to the south side of the river. 
Lafayette then departed momentarily from the 
Fabian policy he had been hitherto pursuing; 
and brought on an action, which proving to be 
a very unequal one, (from having the main body 
of the enemy to engage, instead of his rear, as 
he had been led to suppose,) he very adroitly 
extricated himself without any serious loss. 

The hostile army pursued its way to its in- 
trenchments at Portsmouth. Lafayette reposed 

1 See Memoires de Lafayette, vol. i. p. 478. 



MILITARY OPERATIONS OF LAFAYETTE. 289 

his troops, for some time, at Malvern Hill, on 
the northern bank of James Kiver; and after- 
wards took up a position between the two 
branches of the York, near their confluence. 
Lord Cornwallis, after many apparent fluctuations 
of council, and in order, it Avas supposed, to ob- 
tain a post on the Chesapeake more accessible, 
at all times, to line-of-battle ships, finally trans- 
ferred the whole force under his command from 
Portsmouth to Yorktown. As soon as this change 
of position was made by the enemy, Lafayette 
broke up his encampment on the Pamunkey, and 
gradually concentrated his forces at Williams- 
burg. 1 



1 The masterly manner in which 
Lafayette conducted the campaign 
in Virginia, down to the time of 
the arrival of the allied army un- 
der Washington and Rochambeau, 
forms the most brilliant, as well as 
the most successful, part of his 
whole public career, whether in 
Europe or America. Mr. Madi- 
son, writing to Judge Pendleton 
on the 13th of November, 1781, 
says : " Will not the Assembly pay 
some handsome compliment to the 
Marquis for his judicious and zeal- 
ous services, while the protection 
of the country was entrusted to 
him? His having baffled, and fi- 
nally reduced to the defensive, so 
powerful an army as we now know 
he had to contend with, and with 
so disproportionate a force, would 
have done honor to the most vet- 
eran officer, and, added to his other 
vol. i. 25 



merits and services, constitutes a 
claim on their gratitude which, I 
hope, will not be unattended to." 

It was not unattended to. On 
the 17th of December, 1781, the 
General Assembly of Virginia pass- 
ed a resolution, conceived in the 
warmest terms of affection and ap- 
plause, tendering to him, " for his 
many great and important services, 
to this Commonwealth in particu- 
lar, and through it to the United 
States in general, the grateful 
thanks of the free representatives 
of a free people." They also di- 
rected a marble bust of him to be 
made by one of the best artists of 
Paris, " as a lasting monument 
of his merit and of their grati- 
tude." [Journal of House of Dele- 
gates, October session, 1 781 , p. 43.] 
Other and touching testimonials 
of gratitude and affection were 



290 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Here, aided by the energetic cooperation of 
Governor Nelson, he received from day to clay 
reinforcements of volunteers and militia ; and 
here, too, he was soon to be joined by the whole 
body of the allied forces under Washington and 
Rochambeau. The earnest representations made 
to the French court through Colonel Laurens 
had led to the resolution not only of granting 
additional and indispensable succours of money, 
but of sending out a powerful naval armament 
to support the operations of the joint land forces 
in America. Information was received by Gen- 
eral Washington, on the 14th day of August, 1 
that Count de Grasse would arrive in the Ches- 
apeake about the close of the month, with the 
whole French West India fleet, prepared to unite 
in any system of military operations which should 

again offered to him by the legisla- (interspersed, however, with some 

ture of Virginia in 1784 and 1786. noble acts of vigor and self-devo- 

See Hen. Stat. vol. xi. p. 553, and tion,) contrasted with the unques- 

vol xii. p. 30. tionable splendor of his American 

How entirely this appreciation services and deeds, forms one of 

of the great ability shown by the the most singular phenomena in 

youthful general in the Virginia the history of the human mind; 

campaign of 1781 was sanctioned and proves how fruitless and vain 

by the enlightened judgment of are the highest virtues without a 

Washington, of Vergennes, and congenial theatre for their display, 

of the French minister of war, Se- and unsupported by practical dis- 

gur, is attested by their recorded cernment in their application. See 

opinions at the time. See Sparks's a philosophical and not unfriendly 

Washington, vol. via. pp. 118 and estimate of his character by one of 

208, and Memoires de Lafayette, the most illustrious of his country- 

vol. i. 473. men in Memoires de Monsieur 

The comparative nullity of Gen- Guizot, vol. I. pp. 238, 239. 
eral Lafayette's busy and check- l Sparks's Washington, vol. vm. 

ered career in his own country, pp. 127 and 134. 



ALLIED ARMY MARCHES TO VIRGINIA. 291 

promise the best result in a necessarily limited 
time. This opportune information, combined with 
the slowness of the Northern States in respond- 
ing to the requisitions that had been made upon 
them for troops to aid in the contemplated oper- 
ation against New York, and the large rein- 
forcements recently received by the enemy there, 
determined the mind of the commander-in-chief 
at once to direct his efforts against the British 
post and army in Virginia. 

The American and French forces already as- 
sembled around New York were put in motion 
without delay. On the 3d day of September a 
large portion of the allied army passed through 
Philadelphia, when Mr. Madison wrote to his 
friend Judge Pendleton in the following buoyant 
terms : — 

" This letter will be the most agreeable of any 
I have long had the pleasure of writing. I be- 
gin with informing you that the commander-in- 
chief and the Count Rochambeau, — the former 
with a part of the American army, and the lat- 
ter with the whole of the French, — are thus far 
on their way for the Southern department. The 
American troops passed through the town yes- 
terday : the first division of the French, to-day. 
The second will pass to-morrow. Nothing can 
exceed the appearance of this specimen which 
our ally has sent us of his army, whether we 
regard the figure of the men, or the exactness 
of their discipline." 



292 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Count de Grasse arrived in the Chesapeake 
with his fleet of twenty-eight line-of-battle ships, 
and a proportionate number of frigates, on the 
30th of August. With one portion of them he 
blocked up the mouth of York River ; and with 
another he occupied the James, in order to cut 
off the retreat of Lord Cornwallis to the Caro- 
linas, should he meditate such an attempt; while 
the land troops brought from the West Indies, 
under the Marquis de Saint Simon, were sent 
forward to join Lafayette at Williamsburg. De 
Grasse had been but a few davs in the Chesa- 
peake, when the whole British naval force from 
New York, under Admirals Graves and Hood, 
appeared off Cape Henry, and offered him battle. 
The gage was not declined by the French admi- 
ral, but the action which ensued was not deci- 
sive. The two hostile fleets remained in sight 
of each other, for several successive days, with- 
out renewing the engagement. In the mean 
time, Count de Barras, with the French squad- 
ron from Rhode Island, consisting of eight line- 
of-battle ships, entered the Chesapeake in spite 
of the efforts of the British admirals to intercept 
him. The latter then returned to New York ; 
whence Sir Henry Clinton continued to hold out 
hopes of speedy relief to Cornwallis. 

But events hastened to their consummation. 
Washington and Rochambeau, as soon as they 
arrived with the allied army at Williamsburg, 
went on board the Ville de Paris, the flag ship 



SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS. 293 

of the French admiral, to concert with him the 
necessary measures for the immediate and active 
commencement of the siege. Thus was opened, — 
in the presence of a magnificent fleet of onr 
ally, covering the waters of the Chesapeake, and 
coming together, as if by magic, from remote 
and opposite points of the compass, — that great 
scene of combined operation between the arms 
of France and the United States, fraternal yet 
emulous, which dashed and reversed all the boasts 
of a haughty invader, and sealed the independ- 
ence of America with the humiliating surrender 
of an army that had threatened and denounced 
its conquest. History has rarely presented a 
scene more dramatic and imposing in its acces- 
sories, more august in its associations, or more 
transcendent and eventful in its consequences, 
than the siege and surrender of Yorktown. 

Note. We have already re- Hon. Joseph Jones, one of the del- 

ferred to some proofs of the con- egates of Virginia in Congress, 

temporary appreciation of the able " The complaints against the 

generalship displayed by Lafayette Baron de Steuben are not more 

in his operations for the defence distressing than unexpected ; for I 

of Virginia previous to the arrival always viewed him in the light of 

of the allied army. To these, we a good officer. If he has formed 

are pleased to have it in our power a junction with the Marquis, he 

to add the just estimate of his mil- will be no longer master of his own 

itary character formed by Wash- conduct. Of course, the clamors 

ington, before the campaign in against him will cease with his 

Virginia had <riven evidence to the command. From General Greene's 

world of the correctness of that letters, I had little doubt but that 

estimate. It is extracted from a he would have been in Virginia 

manuscript letter, now before us, ere this. Powerful causes may 

addressed by General Washington, have detained him : but I am per- 

on the 10th of July, 1781, to the suaded he will be there as soon as 

25* 



294 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



possible, as it is within his com- 
mand, and now the principal thea- 
tre of action. In the mean time, 
I am afraid to give any order in 
that quarter, lest it should clash 
with his views, and produce con- 
fusion. 

" I shall, however, write fully to 
him, in the course of a few days, 
upon the several matters contained 
in your letter ; and until his arri- 
val, it is my opinion the command 
of the troops in that State cannot 
be in better hands than the Mar- 



quis's. He possesses uncommon 
military talents ; is of a quick and 
sound judgment ; persevering, and 
enterprising without rashness ; and 
besides these, he is of a very con- 
ciliating temper and perfectly so- 
ber; — which are qualities that 
rarely combine in the same person. 
And were I to add that some men 
will gain as much experience in 
the course of three or four years 
as some others will in ten or a 
dozen, you cannot deny the fact, 
and attack me upon that ground." 



CHAPTER X. 

Proceedings of Congress on receiving Intelligence of the Surrender 
of the British Army at Yorktown — Washington urges energetic 
Preparations for another Campaign — Recommendation warmly 
seconded by Mr. Madison — Congress makes further Calls for 
Troops and Money on the States — Frequent Disregard of these 
Requisitions — Necessity of invigorating the Federal Authority en- 
forced by Washington — Proposition to invest Congress with coer- 
cive Power — Views of Mr. Madison on the Subject — Colonel 
Hamilton brings forward a Project, in a Communication addressed 
by him to a Member of Congress — Remarks on his Scheme — 
Policy of completing the Ratification of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, rather than attempt, in the Midst of War, the Introduction 
of a new System — Congress applies to the States for Power to 
levy Duties on Foreign Imports — Mr. Madison zealously sustains 
the Application — His Letter on the Subject. 

Congress, on the 24th of October, 1781, re- 
ceived official intelligence of the capitulation of 
Yorktown, in a letter from the commander-in- 
chief; and, at two o'clock of the same clay, went 
in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church, 
"to return thanks to Almighty God for crown- 
ing the allied arms of the United States and 
France with success by the surrender of the 
whole British army under Earl Cornwallis." A 



296 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

few days afterwards, upon the report of a com- 
mittee appointed to consider the most proper 
mode of doing honor to the actors in so splendid 
an achievement, the thanks of Congress were 
voted, in the warmest terms, to General Wash- 
ington, Count Rochambeau, and Count de Grasse, 
not omitting the officers and soldiers under their 
command. 

It was further resolved that " the United States 
in Congress assembled will cause to be erected 
at York, in Virginia, a marble column, adorned 
with emblems of the alliance between the United 
States and his Most Christian Majesty, and in- 
scribed with a succinct narrative" of the great 
event; an event which must render that spot 
forever memorable on the pages of history. But 
no monumental structure has yet risen to mark 
it to the eyes of the inquiring patriot or stran- 
ger; and a solemn pledge of the national faith 
to the glorious past of our annals, — a debt 
which no change or lapse of time can cancel, — 
remains still unfulfilled. 

General Washington, in writing to Congress 
on the 26th of October, for the purpose of trans- 
mitting complete returns of the prisoners, arms, 
and stores surrendered at York, and also of in- 
forming them what disposition of his forces he 
had determined to make for the remainder of 
the season, availed himself of the occasion to 
express to that body, with great earnestness, his 
opinion of the course which wisdom and pru- 



RETURN OF WASHINGTON TO THE NORTH. 297 

dence demanded in preparing for another carn- 



Kllgll. 



" Unacquainted," said he, " with the state of 
politics between Congress and the courts of Eu- 
rope respecting future negotiations, whatever our 
prospects from that quarter may be, I cannot 
justify myself to my own mind without urging 
Congress, in the warmest terms, to make every 
arrangement for an early and efficacious cam- 
paign, the ensuing year, that may be found ne- 
cessary. Arguments, I flatter myself, need not 
be adduced to impress on Congress the high im- 
portance of this idea. Whatever may be the 
events of the coming winter or ensuing summer, 
an effectual and early preparation for military 
operations will put us upon the most respectable 
footing either for war or negotiation ; while re- 
laxation will place us in a disreputable situation 
in point of peaceful prospects, and will certainly 
expose us to the most disgraceful disasters in 
case of the continuance of the hostile disposition 
of our enemies." 

Returning to reassume his position in the 
North, the commander-in-chief arrived in Phila- 
delphia the evening of the 26th of November. 
On the 28th, he was formally received by Con- 
gress; and in the address of the President on 
that occasion, congratulating him on the glorious 
success of the allied arms in Virginia, he was 
assured that "it was the fixed purpose of Con- 
gress to draw every advantage from the event 



298 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

by exhorting the States, in the strongest terms, 
to the most vigorous and timely exertions." 

Mr. Madison, in writing to Judge Pendleton 
the day preceding this public reception of the 
General by Congress, says : — 

"Your favor of the 19th instant came to hand 
yesterday. On the same evening arrived our 
illustrious General, returning to his position on 
the North River. We shall probably, however, 
have his company here for some days at least, 
where he will be able to give Congress very 
seasonable aid in settling the military establish- 
ment for the next year ; about which there is 
some diversity of opinion. Whatever the total 
requisition of men may be on the States, I can- 
not but wish that Virginia may take effectual 
measures for bringing into the field her propor- 
tion of men." 

Writing to the same friend as early as the 2d 
of October, 1781, in anticipation of the auspicious 
close of the operation then pending against the 
enemy at York, he evinced how deeply his mind 
was penetrated with the necessity of unrelaxed 
military preparations, on the part of America, to 
secure the great boon of peace and national in- 
dependence. 

" We have received," said he, " some communi- 
cations from Europe, relative to the general state 
of its affairs. They all centre in three important 
points. The first is, the obstinacy of Great Brit- 
ain, the second, the fidelity of our ally, and the 



MEASURES OF CONGRESS. 299 

third, the absolute necessity of vigorous and sys- 
tematic preparations for war on our part, in 
order to insure a speedy, as well as favorable 
peace. The wisdom of the legislature of Virginia 
will, I Hatter myself, not only prevent an illusion 
from the present brilliant prospects, but take 
advantage of the military ardor and sanguine 
hopes of the people to recruit their line for the 
war." 

These views finally prevailed in the delibera- 
tions of Congress. On the 10th of December, it 
was resolved, with a view to the exigencies of 
another campaign, to complete the different corps 
of the army to the full extent of the establish- 
ment fixed for the service of the past year ; and 
"the legislatures of the several States were to 
be called upon, in the most pressing manner, to 
have their respective quotas of the land forces 
in the field by the first day of March next," and 
to provide for vacancies, which might thereafter 
occur, by new enlistments for three years or dur- 
ing the war. 1 It had already been resolved to 
call upon the States for the sum of eight mil- 
lions of dollars in specie, for the fiscal service of 
the ensuing year, to be paid in equal quarterly 
instalments, — the first payment to be made into 
the treasury on the first day of April next. 2 

Experience, however, had unfortunately shown 
that the requisitions of Congress and the com- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. in. 2 Idem, under dates of October 
p. 700. 30 and November 2, 1781. 



300 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

pliance of the States were not always equivalent 
terms. While some of the States responded to 
the calls made upon them with a noble promp- 
titude and self-devotion, others either failed to 
comply at all, or complied only tardily and in 
part. The embarrassments to the common ser- 
vice, and the injustice of the unequal burdens 
borne by the different members of the Confeder- 
acy, arising from the delinquency of some of the 
States, constituted, at this critical period of the 
war, a crying evil, for which some remedy was 
loudly demanded. The nature and extent of the 
evil are nowhere, perhaps, more impressively set 
forth, in words of truth and soberness, than in 
a letter addressed by Washington, in the early 
part of the year, 1 to his young connection and 
friend, John Parke Custis, then a member of the 
Virginia legislature. 

" The great business of war," he says, " can 
never be well conducted, if it can be conducted 
at all, while the powers of Congress are only 
recommendatory. While one State yields obe- 
dience, and another refuses it; while a third 
mutilates and adopts the measure in part only; 
and all vary in time and manner, it is scarcely 
possible that our affairs should prosper, or that 
anything but disappointments can follow the 
best concerted plans. The willing States are 
almost ruined by their exertions ; distrust and 
jealousy ensue. Hence proceed neglect and ill- 

1 February 28th, 1781. 



GENERAL WASHINGTON'S VIEWS. 301 

timed compliances ; one State waiting to see what 
another will do. This thwarts all our measures, 
after a heavy, though ineffectual, expense is in- 
curred." 

With regard to the remedy, and the pressing- 
necessity for some immediate change, he pro- 
ceeds : — 

" Our independence, our respectability and con- 
sequence in Europe, our greatness as a nation 
hereafter, dejDend upon it. The fear of giving 
sufficient powers to Congress, for the purposes 
I have mentioned, is futile. A nominal head, 
which is, at present, but another name for Con- 
gress, will no longer do. That honorable body, 
after hearing the interests and views of the sev- 
eral States fairly discussed and explained by their 
representatives, must dictate, and not merely 
recommend and leave it to the States to do 
afterwards as they please ; which, as I have ob- 
served before, is in many cases to do nothing at 
all." * 

1 See Sparks's Washington, vol. Mr. Jones. From an indorsement 

vn. pp. 440-444. upon it. by Mr. Madison, it seems 

Among the papers of Mr. Mad- to have been supposed by him that 
ison printed in 1840 by order of General Washington was the wri- 
Congress, is a remarkable letter of ter. This conjecture, however, is 
unknown origin, expressing opin- not confirmed by an examination 
ions in striking coincidence with of General Washington's files. 1 1 
those cited above. The letter ap- is most probable, from certain allu- 
pears to have been addressed to sions in the letter, that it was writ- 
Messrs. Pendleton, Wythe, and ten by a member of the legislature 
Jefferson. The copy of it in the of Virginia ; and one, too, of the 
possession of Mr. Madison was in first order for wisdom, patriotism, 
the handwriting of his colleague, and experience. The following ex- 
vol. I. 26 



302 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



The conviction became general in the country 
that Congress should, in some mode or other, be 
armed with the practical means of enforcing a 
compliance of the States with the lawful requi- 
sitions of the central authority. The legislature 
of New York, in a very able paper presented to 
Congress, declared their opinion that it resulted 
from the very nature of the powers granted to 
that body by the articles of confederation, as 
well as the obligations expressly contracted by the 
States in the same instrument, that Congress was 
already invested with full authority to compel, 
with the whole military force of the nation, if 
necessary, refractory States to conform to the 



tracts -will serve to show its gen- 
eral drift and tone. 

" The States appear to have 
yielded to Congress the right of 
ascertaining the sum necessary for 
the public expense, and oblige 
themselves to furnish their propor- 
tions agreeably to the mode pre- 
scribed ; they also yield the right 
of fixing the quotas of men for the 
common defence, which shall be 
binding ; but no mode is stated 
how a disobedient or delinquent 
State is to be compelled to furnish 
the one or the other, and for want 
of this controlling power in Con- 
gress over the S airs, when refrac- 
tory, war cannot, be prosecuted 
with vigor, and the safety of the 
whole is endangered, besides the 
hardship and injustice to those that 
comply, and the prolongation of 
the war by such delinquencies. If, 



in surrendering the right of fixing 
the proportions, the power of com- 
pelling obedience is implied, how 
or by what mode ought the refrac- 
tory to be punished ; by shutting 
the ports, marching an army in- 
to the State, or in what other 
mode ? " 

The writer then adds : " It would 
give me concern should it be 
thought of me that I am desirous 
of enlarging the powers of Con- 
gress unnecessarily, as I declare to 
God my only aim is the general 
good, and which, in time of war, 
does appear to me to be involved 
in the exercise of this or some con- 
trolling power adequate to drawing 
out, in due proportion, the abilities 
and resources of the States." See 
Madison Debates and Correspond- 
ence, vol. I. pp. 81-84. 



MR, MADISON'S VIEWS. 



303 



federal requisitions. Such was understood to be 
the acknowledged common law of confederacies, 
both ancient and modern. 1 

Mr. Madison, deeply impressed with the ruin- 
ous and destructive consequences threatened by 
the wanton delinquency of some of the States, 
but habitually jealous of the exercise of con- 
structive powers, appears to have favored, at 
this time, a specific amendment of the articles 
of confederation, which should expressly grant 
to Congress authority to employ the force of 
the Union against the trade or property of con- 
tumacious States, in such manner as to constrain 
them to fulfil their federal engagements. In a 



1 Mr. Jefferson, in a letter ad- 
dressed to Colonel Edward Car- 
rington some years after this pe- 
riod, [4th of August, 1787,] says: 

" It has been so often said, as to 
be generally believed, that Con- 
gress have no power by the eon- 
federation to enforce anything ; 
for example, contributions of mon- 
ey. It was not necessary to give 
them that power expressly; they 
have it by the law of nature. 
When two parties make a com- 
pact, there results to each a power 
of compelling the other to execute 
it. Compulsion was never so easy 
as in our case, where a single frig- 
ate would soon levy on the com- 
merce of any State the deficiency 
of its contributions ; nor more safe 
than in the hands of Congress, 
which has always shown that it 
would wait, as it ought to do, to 



the last extremities, before it would 
exercise any of its powers which 
are disagreeable." Jefferson's 
Writings, vol. n. p. 203. 

In 1784, the legislature of Vir- 
ginia passed a resolution declaring 
that Congress ought to enforce the 
payment of balances due from any 
of the States by distress on the 
property of the defaulting States 
or of their citizens. See Journal 
of House of Delegates, May ses- 
sion, 1784, pp. 11, 12. —In the de- 
bates of the' Virginia convention 
on the ratification of the federal 
constitution, this resolution was 
referred to ; and Mr. George Nich- 
olas, appealing to Mr. Henry, said, 
"I am sure that the gentleman 
recognizes his child ; " and it was 
not disowned. See Robertson's 
Debates of Virginia Convention 
of 1788. 



304 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

letter to Mr. Jefferson of the 16th of April, 1781, 
he thus expressed himself : — 

"The necessity of arming Congress with coer- 
cive powers arises from the shameful deficiency 
of some of the States, which are most capable 
of yielding their apportioned supplies, and the 
military exactions to which others, already ex- 
hausted by the enemy and our own troops, are 
in consequence exposed. Without such powers, 
too, in the general government, the whole con- 
federacy may be insulted, and the most salutary 
measures frustrated by the most inconsiderable 
State in the Union. At a time when all the 
other States were submitting to the loss and in- 
convenience of an embargo on their exports, 
Delaware absolutely declined coming into the 
measure, and not only defeated the general ob- 
ject of it, but enriched herself at the expense of 
those who did their duty 

"It may be asked, perhaps, by what means 
Congress could exercise such a power, if the 
States were to invest them with it. As long as 
there is a regular army oil. foot, a small detach- 
ment from it, acting under civil authority, would 
at any time render a voluntary contribution of 
supplies due from a State an eligible alternative. 
But there is a still more easy and efficacious 
mode. The situation of most of the States is 
such that two or three vessels of force, employed 
against their trade, will make it their interest to 
yield prompt obedience to all just requisitions 



PROPOSAL OF COERCIVE POWERS. 305 

on them. With respect to those States that 
have little or no foreign trade of their own, it 
is provided that all inland trade with such States 
as supply them with foreign merchandise may 
be interdicted, and the concurrence of the latter 
may be enforced, in case of refusal, by opera- 
tions on their foreign trade." * 

A proposition of this kind was embodied in 
the report of a committee of Congress ; and al- 
though it undoubtedly met the approbation of 
that body, it seems not to have been pressed to 
a final decision. Those who favored the meas- 
ure believed that the mere grant of the pro- 
posed power to Congress would obviate all oc- 
casion for its exercise, as the States prone to 
disregard their federal duties, knowing before- 

7 O 

hand the penalty of disobedience, would not 
choose to expose themselves to its visitation. 
But the lively jealousy of congressional author- 
ity, which prevailed in some of the States, ren- 
dered it sufficiently evident that no application 
for additional power, however urgent its appar- 
ent necessity, could at that time receive the 
unanimous assent of all the States, necessary to 
make it a part of the federal compact. 

Among the many projects of reform in the 
federal system, suggested by individuals or public 
bodies about this period, much attention has, of 
late years, been drawn to a letter addressed by 
Colonel Alexander Hamilton to Mr. Duane, a 

1 Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 86, 87. 

26* 



306 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

member of Congress from the State of New York. 
The letter bears date the 3d of September, 1780. 
Colonel Hamilton was, at that time, one of the 
aids of the commander-in-chief, and had already 
won much distinction by his generous ardor in 
the cause of the Revolution, and by the proofs 
he had given of superior abilities, both civil and 
military. His position in the military family of 
General Washington, and his own active and intel- 
ligent spirit, had made him thoroughly conversant 
with the general course and actual condition of 
public affairs. The views of such a mind, on the 
wants and exigencies of the country, could not 
but possess a high degree both of interest and 
instruction. But when the letter of a young 
man of twenty-three years of age is gravely rep- 
resented as " the ablest and truest production on 
the state of the Union which appeared during 
the Revolution," and " as containing in embryo 
the existing Federal Constitution," 1 formed seven 
years afterwards by the joint councils of the 
most experienced statesmen of America, — when 
we find this key-note of adulation and applause 
followed by a numerous school of political writ- 
ers, who trace up everything of value in our 
institutions to the precocious wisdom or lucky 
inspiration of this boasted letter, — we are sum- 
moned to study it with a closer scrutiny and 
attention. 

Freely assenting to the many and unquestion- 

1 See Life of Alexander Hamilton in " National Portrait Gallery." 



COLONEL HAMILTON'S PROJECT. 307 

able merits of the letter, in its lucid and vigor- 
ous exposition of various subjects, which the 
melancholy experience of the times had made 
but too familiar to minds of far less inherent 
power than that of the writer, we are yet at 
a loss, — looking at it in the only light in 
which we are now called to regard it, as a pro- 
ject of constitutional reform, — to understand 
how it can be considered as " containing in em- 
bryo" the Federal Constitution of 1787. 

Unlike that constitution, and contrary to the 
example of the several State constitutions, as 
well as to the general principles of political sci- 
ence, instead of organizing the proposed new 
government into separate and independent de- 
partments, legislative, executive, and judicial, as 
all these authorities and examples inculcate, it 
sets out by vesting all power in a single body, 
the Congress of the United States. This feature, 
it is true, belonged also to the old system ; but 
that system was repudiated by the writer as " a 
futile and senseless confederation." a Though the 
scheme proposed an " Executive Ministry," yet 
the members of that ministry were to be chosen 
by the Congress, and to act under its habitual 
direction. It invested Congress with " a com- 
plete sovereignty " ; not even leaving intact to 
the States that control over their " internal po- 
lice," which has been considered the invariable 
principle of all confederate governments, and is 

1 See his letter to Robert Morris. 



308 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the acknowledged law of the existing Federal 
Constitution. 

How, too, was this "sovereign" government 
over the people and States of America to be in- 
troduced and established ? By the absolute fiat 
of a convention appointed by the State legisla- 
tures; which convention was to have "full and 
plenipotentiary authority to conclude finally " upon 
the plan of government, without referring it back 
for the sanction of the constituent bodies. That 
is, the State legislatures, — for all conventions 
of the kind proposed were understood to proceed 
from them, and this especially must have been 
so, for it was to assemble in less than two 
months from the date of the proposal, — though 
possessing themselves but a limited and dele- 
gated authority, were to delegate to their del- 
egates a final authority to establish a government 
of sovereign powers over the country, without 
submitting the plan to the approbation either of 
the people or of the State legislatures them- 
selves. A more absolute ignoring of the only 
recognized source of political power in a free 
country it would be difficult to conceive. 

These are some of the obvious criticisms to 
which the scheme of the letter of the 3d of Sep- 
tember, 1780, lies open. The defects, or rather 
crudities, they indicate might well be excused in 
so young a man, however gifted, writing in the 
hurry of a camp, and under the bias of the sum- 
mary habits of thinking and acting which an 



IMPORTANCE OF CONFEDERATION 309 

exclusive military life of some years' continuance 
would naturally generate. But when the specu- 
lations of the writer are held up as the ora- 
cles of the highest wisdom, which, it is asserted, 
ultimately shaped, and were justly entitled to 
shape, the institutions of the country, we have no 
.choice but to judge them upon their intrinsic 
merits. 

The time had not yet come for superseding 
the articles of confederation by a new system • 
even though that system had been freer from 
objection than the one proposed by Colonel 
Hamilton in the letter to Mr. Duane. When 
that letter was written, the accession of but one 
State was wanting to complete the federal bond, 
which united all the States in a close and indis- 
soluble community of obligations, as well as in- 
terests. The consummation of that bond was 
invoked by the most reflecting minds of the na- 
tion as the " one thing needful " to place the 
cause of American independence beyond the clan- 
ger of fatal divisions and reactions. That once 
completed, conjunctures, as they arose, could be 
improved to strengthen the bond, or to replace 
it, in the fulness of time, with a new and more 
perfect system. 

An eminent statesman belonging to the same 
political school with Colonel Hamilton, and the 
selected historiographer of the struggles and vicis- 
situdes of the Revolution, speaking of the im- 
portance of the final ratification of the articles 



310 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of confederation, gives expression to the follow- 
ing enlightened and mature reflections : — 

"Had peace been made before any agreement 
for a permanent union was formed, it is far 
from being improbable that the different parts 
might have fallen asunder, and a dismember- 
ment have taken place. If the confederation 
really preserved the idea of union, until the 
good sense of the nation adopted a more efficient 
system, this service alone entitles that instrument 
to the respectful recollection of the American 
people, and its framers to their gratitude." x 

The urgent necessity of some independent 
source of revenue, at the command of Congress, 
to enable them to provide for a faithful fulfil- 
ment of the national engagements, led, at an 
early period, to an application to the States to 
vest in Congress a power to levy, for the use of 
the United States, a duty of five per cent, on 
foreign merchandise imported into any of the 
States. A resolution to that effect was passed 
by Congress on the 3d clay of February, 1781; 
and it was declared, at the same time, that " the 
moneys arising from the proposed duty were to 
be appropriated to the discharge of the principal 
and interest of the debts already contracted, or 
which may be contracted, on the faith of the 
United States for supporting the present war, 
and that the duty be continued until the said 
debts shall be fully and finally discharged." 2 

1 Judge Marshall, in Life of Washington, vol. I. pp. 429, 430. 

2 Journals of Congress, vol. in. p. 573 



VIRGINIA REPEALS IMPOST ACT. 311 

Mr. Madison, in his correspondence with his 
friends in Virginia, exerted all his influence to 
induce the State to comply with this application 
of Congress. 1 The legislature, in its hurried and 
agitated session at Staunton in the month of 
June, did not overlook this call upon its patriot- 
ism and national spirit. An act was passed 
granting, in the fullest manner, the power asked 
by Congress, with authority also to appoint col- 
lectors in the Commonwealth to demand and 
receive the duty. At the ensuing session in the 
autumn, however, it appearing that many of the 
States had failed to comply with the application 
of Congress, a new act was passed, suspending 
the operation of the former one until the gov- 
ernor should issue his proclamation announcing 
that the different States have passed similar 
laws. 2 

This proceeding of the legislature brought 
great annoyance and mortification to Mr. Madi- 
son, who recognized so fully the vital importance 
of a system of adequate and indejDendent reve- 
nue under the control of the Union. His senti- 
ments on the occasion were freely and strongly 
expressed in a letter of the 22d of January, 
1782, to Mr. Edmund Randolph, now one of his 
colleagues in Congress, but temporarily absent 
on a visit to Richmond. We insert here the 

1 See particularly his letter of the 29th of May, 1781, to Judge 
Pendleton, in Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. I. pp. 94-96. 
3 See Hen. Stat. vol. x. p. 451. Also idem, pp. 409, 410. 



312 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

whole letter, not merely as a fit introduction to 
the leading part he was soon to take in pressing 
this great measure on the attention of Congress 
and the nation, but as announcing a fruitful 
principle, whose consequences reached farther 
and deeper than any measure of present policy. 

"The repeal of the impost act by Virginia," 
he said, " is still considered as covered with some 
degree of mystery. Colonel Bland's representa- 
tions do not remove the veil. Indeed, he seems 
as much astonished at it, and as unable to pen- 
etrate it, as any of us. Many have surmised 
that the enmity of Dr. Lee against Morris is at 
the bottom of it. But had that been the case, 
it can scarcely be supposed that the repeal would 
have passed so quietly. By this time, I presume 
you will be able to furnish me with its true his- 
tory, and I ask the favor of you to do it. Vir- 
ginia could never have cut off this source of 
public relief at a more unlucky crisis than when 
she is protesting her inability to comply with 
the continental requisitions. She will, I hope, be 
yet made sensible of the impropriety of the step 
she has taken, and make amends by a more lib- 
eral grant. 

"Congress cannot abandon the plan, as long 
as there is a spark of hope. Nay, other plans 
on a like principle must be added. Justice, grat- 
itude, our reputation abroad, and our tranquillity 
at home, require provision for a debt of not less 
than fifty millions of dollars, and I presume that 



EXPOSTULATION OF Mil. MADISON. 313 

this provision will not be adequately met by 
separate acts of the States. If there are not 
revenue laws, which operate at the same time 
through all the States, and are exempt from the 
control of each, the mutual jealousies, which 
begin already to appear among them, will as- 
suredly defraud both our foreign and domestic 
creditors of their just claims. 

" The deputies of the army are still here, urging 
the objects of their mission. Congress are thor- 
oughly impressed with the justice of them, and 
are disposed to do everything which depends on 
them. But what can a Virginia delegate say to 
them, whose constituents declare that they are 
unable to make the necessary contributions, and 
unwilling to establish funds for obtaining them 
elsewhere ? " 

We shall hereafter have occasion to show the 
bold and manly line of statesmanship which Mr. 
Madison pursued on this subject. For the pres- 
ent, having recounted the measures adopted by 
Congress for the prosecution of the war, it be- 
comes necessary to consider what had been done 
by them to fix the terms and conditions of 
peace, should negotiations be renewed for that 
object. 

VOL. I. 27 



CHAPTER XI. 

Proceedings of Congress for settling Conditions of Peace — Instruc- 
tions agreed upon and Minister appointed in 1779, with Reference 
to Negotiations under Mediation of Spain — That Mediation proves 
abortive — Spain becomes a Party to the War, and Empress of 
Russia and Emperor of Austria offer their Mediation in 1781 — 
New Instructions given, and additional Ministers appointed — Mo- 
tives and Policy of Instructions in submitting American Ministers 
to Counsels of France — Statement of Mr. Madison — England, 
persisting in treating United States as Subjects in a State of 
Rebellion, declines Preliminaries of mediating Powers — France 
accedes in first Instance, but, apprised of Ground taken by Eng- 
land, declares Inutility of proceeding till that Ground is aban- 
doned — Debates in British Parliament upon receiving News of 
Surrender of Army at Yorktown — Resignation of Lord North and 
Dissolution of his Ministry — Administration of Lord Rockingham 
make vague Overtures for Peace through Sir Guy Carleton in 
America, and secret Agents at Paris — Mr. Madison's Views of 
those Overtures — Renewed Attempt to separate United States 
and France, indignantly repelled by both — Division in English 
Cabinet — Death of Lord Rockingham — New Administration un- 
der Lord Shelburne disclose Views adverse to Recognition of 
American Independence — Firm Declaration of Congress — Re- 
sponsive Resolutions of Legislature of Virginia — Spirit of the 
Times as manifested in their Proceedings against Arthur Lee, 
Delegate in Congress, suspected of Disaffection to French Alliance. 



FIRST INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEACE. 315 

As early as February, 1779, when the media- 
tion of Spain, which we have already noticed, 
was officially communicated to Congress, a com- 
mittee was appointed to consider and report on 
what terms the United States would be willing; 
to terminate the war. The committee, consist- 
ing of Gouverneur Morris of New York, Mr. 
Burke of North Carolina, Mr. Witherspoon of 
New Jersey, Mr. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, 
and Mr. Meriwether Smith of Virginia, reported 
two classes of conditions : the first admitting of 
no compromise, and to be considered an ultima- 
tum; the other discretionary, and to be insisted 
on, or yielded for equivalents, according to cir- 
cumstances. 

In the first class were included the territorial 
boundaries of the United States, which were to 
be fixed by the ancient limits of Canada and 
Nova Scotia, by the River Mississippi, and the 
thirty-first parallel of north latitude; the right 
of the citizens of the United States, equally with 
the subjects of France and Great Britain, to 
take and cure fish on the banks and coast of 
Newfoundland ; and the free navigation of the 
Mississippi, together with a free port on that 
river below the southern boundary of the United 
States. 

These terms, affecting, in different ways and 
degrees, the interests of different portions of the 
confederacy, naturally gave rise, when brought 
forward as sine qua non and inflexible conditions 



316 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of peace, to much difference of opinion ; and were 
the subject of warm and protracted debates in 
Congress from the 27th of February to the 14th 
of August, 1779. 1 On this last day, a final draught 
of instructions to the minister, who should be 
appointed to treat of peace, was agreed upon. 
According to these instructions, the minister was 
to make it "a preliminary article to any nego- 
tiation, that Great Britain shall agree to treat 
with the United States as free, sovereign, and 
independent States " : he was also to " take espe- 
cial care that the independence of the said States 
be effectually assured and confirmed by the treaty 
or treaties of peace, according to the form and 
effect of the treaty of alliance with his Most 
Christian Majesty " : and the territorial bounda- 
ries were to be established in substantial con- 
formity to the demarcation laid down in the 
report of the committee. 

These three articles were to form the ultima- 
tum of the United States in any negotiation for 
peace with England. While the common right 
of the citizens of the United States to partici- 
pate in the American fisheries was affirmed in 
the strongest terms, it was not made a part of 
the ultimatum for peace. It was referred to 
a commercial treaty, which the same minister 
was authorized to conclude, if it should be found 
practicable to do so, and in which an express 
stipulation was to be inserted that Great Britain 

1 See Secret Journals, vol. EC. pp. 137-236. 



MR. ADAMS APPOINTED MINISTER. 317 

should not molest or disturb the inhabitants of 
the United States in the rights of fishery claimed 
by them ; with a formal declaration that any 
such molestation would be considered a breach 
of the peace, be made a common cause of all 
the States, and the force of the Union be exerted 
to obtain redress for the parties injured. 

The question of the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi was, about the same time, as we have seen, 
made the subject of special negotiation with 
Spain. With regard to all other matters, the 
minister was instructed " to govern himself by the 
alliance between his Most Christian Majesty and 
these States, by the advice of our allies, by his 
knowledge of our interests, and by his own dis- 
cretion, in which we repose the fullest confi- 
dence." 

On the 27th day of September, six weeks # 
after the adoption of these instructions, Mr. John 
Adams was appointed — not without opposition — 
the minister for negotiating both a treaty of 
peace and a treaty of commerce with Great 
Britain. The haughty impracticability of her 
councils, with regard to the remotest suggestion 
of the independence of her "revolted colonies" 
under the patronage of a foreign power, having 
put an end to this effort of Spain to restore 
peace among the belligerents, no negotiation 
ever took place upon the basis of the foregoing 
instructions. 

It was not long, however, before another and 

27* 



318 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

powerful mediation was proposed to bring about 
the general return of peace. Spain, after the 
failure of her mediation, became a party to the 
war on the side of her ancient ally, France; and 
in another year, the imperious conduct of Eng- 
land, and her open denunciation of hostilities, 
added Holland also to the embattled list of her 
adversaries. The flames of war thus rapidly 
spreading in Europe, the " armed neutrality " of 
the northern powers, headed by the Empress 
Catherine, 1 and interested in the jDrotection of 
their commerce from belligerent interruptions, 
determined to make one more effort for the rees- 
tablishment of peace. For that purpose, the two 
imperial courts of St. Petersburg and Vienna 
offered their formal mediation to the bellio-er- 
ents. 

This mediation was officially announced to 
Congress by the minister of France on the 26th 
day of May, 1781. His communication was re- 
ferred to a committee consisting of Mr. Carroll 
of Maryland, Mr. Jones of Virginia, Mr. Wither- 
spoon of New Jersey, Mr. Sullivan of New Hamp- 
shire, and Mr. Matthews of South Carolina, Upon 
the report of the committee, various propositions 
were submitted and debated with regard to the 
terms on which the United States would be will- 
ing to conclude a peace under the mediation 
now offered. Finally, on the 15th of June, 1781, 

1 By a resolution of the 5th of October, 1 780, Congress formally 
declared its adhesion to the principles of the " armed neutrality." 



SECOND INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEACE. 319 

new instructions were agreed upon in Congress, 
by which the American minister was authorized 
to concur, on behalf of the United States, with 
his Most Christian Majesty in accepting the me- 
diation proposed by the Empress of Russia and 
the Emperor of Germany ; but he was expressly 
enjoined to accede to no treaty which should 
not, first, effectually secure the independence and 
sovereignty of the United States, according to 
the tenor of the treaties subsisting with France, 
and, secondly, in which the alliance formed by 
those treaties shall not be left in full force and 
obligation. 

With regard to boundaries, and all other ques- 
tions than the two above mentioned, the minister 
was referred to the former instructions of the 
14th of August, 1779, and to certain supplemental 
instructions (in answer to specific inquiries) of 
the 18th of October, 1780, as embodying " the 
desires and expectations of Congress " ; but it 
was thought unsafe, at so great a distance from 
the scene of negotiation, "to tie up the hands 
of the minister by absolute and peremptory di- 
rections upon any other subject than the two 
essential articles mentioned above." In the con- 
duct of the negotiation generally, he was " to 
make the most candid and confidential commu- 
nications upon all subjects to the ministers of 
our generous ally, the King of France ; to un- 
dertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or 
truce without their knowledge and concurrence; 



320 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

and ultimately to govern himself by their advice 
and opinion, endeavouring in his whole conduct 
to make them sensible how much we rely on 
his Majesty's influence for effectual support in 
everything that may be necessary to the present 
security or future prosperity of the United States 
of America," * 

This latter clause of the instructions has been 
not unfrequently criticized as departing from a 
just sense of national dignity and self-respect, in 
putting the American minister in undue subjec- 
tion to the wishes and advice of our ally. The 
persevering and insidious endeavours of the Brit- 
ish government to undermine the fidelity of the 
allies to each other by proposals addressed to the 
separate interests, first of one and then of the oth- 
er, had not unnaturally produced a certain uneasi- 
ness in the mind of the French monarch as to 
the possible effect of these oft repeated intrigues. 
It was deemed expedient to allay every jealousy 
of this kind by the frank and unreserved lan- 
guage of the instructions to the American min- 
ister; which were ordered to be communicated 
to the representative of France in the United 
States. 

It is, moreover, quite certain that these instruc- 
tions, with regard to the duty imposed of habit> 
ual consultations with the French government, 
were rendered more stringent on account of the 

1 For these proceedings, see Secret Journals of Congress, vol. II. 
from pp. 412-449. 



ADDITIONAL MINISTERS APPOINTED. 321 

unconciliating temper manifested by Mr. Adams, 
the sole minister then charged with the negotia- 
tions for peace on the part of the United, States, 
and whose conduct, on one or two occasions, had 
given rise to much dissatisfaction in France. It 
was after the failure of a motion to associate 
other persons in the management of the nego- 
tiation with him, that the original draught of 
the instructions was reconsidered, and its phrase- 
ology strengthened in the clause of restriction on 
the minister. In the sequel, it was determined to 
join four other persons, — Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, 
Mr. Henry Laurens, and Mr. Jefferson, — in the 
commission with Mr. Adams ; but the superadded 
restriction having then been already incorporated 
in the instructions, and made known to the French 
minister, it became awkward and embarrassing 
to strike it out, and a motion to do so was con- 
sequently rejected. 1 

The animadversions on this passage of our 
diplomatic history have, doubtless, been much 
tinged by a spirit of party prejudice and recrim- 
ination, engendered in subsequent political strifes. 
It is but a debt of justice to the body whose 
act, sanctioned by the votes of twenty out of 
twenty-eight of its members, has been thus freely 
arraigned, to insert here an authentic statement 
of the considerations which led to it, as recorded 
at the time by a calm observer and actor. In 
the diary of the proceedings and debates of 

1 See Secret Journals, ubi supra. 



322 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Congress kept, at that period, by Mr. Madiscn, 
he gives the following account of the adoption 
of the instructions, by which the negotiations 
for peace were submitted to the counsels of 
France. 

"At the juncture when that measure took 
place, affairs were in the most deplorable situa- 
tion, the Southern States being overrun and ex- 
hausted by the enemy, and the others more 
inclined to repose after their own fatigues, than 
to exert their resources for the relief of those 
which were the seat of war ; the old paper cur- 
rency had failed, and with it public, credit itself, 
to such a degree that no new currency could 
be substituted ; and there was then no prospect 
of introducing specie for the purpose, our trade 
being in the most ruinous condition, and the in- 
tercourse with the Havannah, in particular, un- 
opened. In the midst of these distresses, the me- 
diation of the two imperial courts was announced. 
The general idea was that the two most respect- 
able powers of Europe would not interpose with- 
out a serious desire of peace, and without the 
energy requisite to effect it. The hope of peace 
was, therefore, mingled with an apprehension 
that considerable concessions might be exacted 
from America by the mediators, as a compensa- 
tion for the essential one which Great Britain 
was to submit to. 

" Congress, on a trial, found it impossible, from 
the diversity of opinions and interests, to define 



MADISON'S ACCOUNT OF INSTRUCTIONS. 323 

any other claims than those of independence and 
the alliance. A discretionary power, therefore, 
was to be delegated with regard to all other 
claims. Mr. Adams was the sole minister for 
peace ; he was personally at variance with the 
French ministry; his judgment had not the con- 
fidence of some, nor his impartiality, in case of 
an interference of claims espoused by different 
quarters of the United States, the confidence of 
others ; a motion to associate with him two col- 
leagues, to wit, Mr. Franklin and Mr. Jay, had 
been disagreed to by Congress, the former of 
these being interested, as one of the land com- 
panies, 1 in territorial claims, which had less chance 
of being made good in any other way than by 
a repossession of the vacant country by the Brit- 
ish crown ; the latter belonging to a State inter- 
ested in such arrangements as would deprive the 
United States of the navigation of the Mississippi, 
and turn the Western trade through New York 
— and neither of them being connected with the 
Southern States. 

"The idea of having five ministers taken from 
the whole Union was not suggested until the 
measure had been adopted, and communicated to 
the Chevalier de la Luzerne, to be forwarded to 
France, when it was too late to revoke it. It 
was supposed also that Mr. Laurens, then in the 
Tower, would not be out, and that Mr. Jefferson 

1 Dr. Franklin was one of the principal proprietors of the " Wal- 
pole Grant," which was the origin of the Vandalia Land Company. 



324 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

would not go, and that the greater the number 
of ministers, the greater the danger of discords 
and indiscretions. It was added that, as it was 
expected nothing would be yielded by Great 
Britain which was not extorted by the address 
of France in managing the mediators, and as it 
was the intention of Congress that their minister 
should not oppose a peace, recommended by 
them and approved by France, it would be good 
policy to make the declaration to France, and, 
by such a mark of confidence, to render her 
friendship the more responsible for the issue." 1 

This mediation, imposing as it was, was des- 
tined to the same abortive issue which had attend- 
ed the previous essay, under the auspices of Spain, 
and from the same obstinate cause. The pride 
and resentment of England refused to admit any 
foreign intervention in the quarrel with her 
" rebellious subjects " ; and on that ground she 
withheld her assent from the preliminary articles 
which were propounded by the mediators to the 
belligerent powers as the basis for opening ne- 
gotiations. Though she had herself invited the 
mediation, — at least that of the Emperor, — she 
used the following haughty language in declining 
the preliminaries : — 

" On every occasion, in which there has been 
a question of negotiation since the commence- 
ment of the war with France, the King has con- 
stantly declared that he could never admit, in 

i Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 240-243. 



MEDIATION OF RUSSIA AND AUSTRIA. 325 

any manner whatever, nor under any form, that 
there should be any interference between foreign 

powers and his rebellious subjects This 

resolution is as immutable as the foundation on 
which it rests. From the application of this 
principle to the different points of the first, sec- 
ond, and third articles, results the melancholy 
but indispensable necessity of declining all that 
is proposed in these different articles relative to 
the rebellious subjects of his Majesty." 

France, on the other hand, promptly gave her 
adhesion to the general principles of the prelim- 
inaries laid down by the mediators ; but while 
doing so, insisted with frankness and decision 
upon the necessity of such an explicit under- 
standing beforehand as to leave no doubt whatr 
ever as to the equal footing on which the 
American minister should be received, in the 
contemplated conferences, as the representative 
of a "free and independent nation." When ap- 
prised of the answer given by the court of Lon- 
don, the King of France caused his ministers to 
announce to the mediators that the determina- 
tion of the British cabinet, still "to regard and 
treat the Americans as its subjects, rendered 
abortive every exertion for obtaining peace," and 
would convert the proposed deliberations, if they 
should proceed under such circumstances, " into a 
vain pretence." They then, in language of which 
the dignity is enhanced by its apparent sincerity, 
declare on behalf of their sovereign : — 

VOL. I. 28 



326 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

"The King is truly sorry to see that things 
have taken a direction so contrary to his wishes, 
and to the expectations of their imperial Majes- 
ties ; and if it were in his power to change it, 
he would do it with an eagerness which would 
show to them the purity of his intentions : but 
his Majesty thinks it his duty to observe that he 
has allies with whom he has inviolable engage- 
ments, that he should betray them by aban- 
doning the American cause, and that he should 
betray this cause if he consented to negotiate a 
peace separate from and independent of the 
United States." * - 

In communicating to Congress, through Mon- 
sieur de la Luzerne, the difficulties which had 
arisen in the progress of the mediation, Count 
de Vergennes had said that the most effectual 
repty to the objections of the British cabinet, 
with regard to treating with the Colonies as an 
independent power, would be " a decisive victory 
over its armies in the ensuing campaign." The 
efficacious virtue of that reply, already given at 
Yorktown, was now to be tested. On the 27th 
of November, 1781, the British Parliament again 
assembled. The King's speech, while announcing 
with deep "concern" the disaster which had be- 
fallen his arms in Virginia, still appealed with 
earnestness to Parliament for "its firm concur- 
rence and assistance " in the prosecution of the 

i See Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution, vol. II. pp. 35- 
51. Also Secret Journals, vol. III. pp. 26-31. 



RESIGNATION OF LORD NORTH. 327 

contest. In the debates, however, which followed, 
it soon appeared from the declarations both of 
the prime minister, and of his second, the lord 
advocate for Scotland (Dmidas), that a change 
was intended in the mode of conducting the 
war in America, and that the operations of the 
next campaign were to be limited to the reten- 
tion and defence of the posts already held by 
them in the United States. 

This first symptom of ministerial relenting 
gave confidence to the efforts of the opposition; 
and after several assaults, with varying success, 
a resolution moved by General Conway, " against 
the further prosecution of offensive war on the 
continent of North America," was finally carried 
in the House of Commons by a majority of 19, 
on the 27th of February, 1782. This resolution 
was followed up by repeated motions expressive of 
a want of confidence in ministers ; which, though 
not actually carried, yet received such large and 
increasing votes, on each renewed trial, that 
at length, on the 20th of March, Lord North 
announced to the House the determination of 
himself and his colleagues to retire. Thus fell, 
under the rebound of the victory of Yorktown, 
an administration which, for twelve long years, 
had kept possession of power ; and which, against 
the wishes and convictions of its ostensible head, 
as is now revealed, was the passive instrument 
of the obstinate and infatuated policy of the 
King towards America. 



328 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Before the dissolution of the late ministry, and 
apparently as a last expedient to maintain them- 
selves in office, a bill was introduced by the 
attorney-general "to enable his Majesty to con- 
clude a truce or peace with the revolted Colo- 
nies in America." * A new administration was 
formed under the auspices of the Marquis of 
Rockingham, he being made first Lord of the 
Treasury ; the Earl of Shelburne and Mr. Fox, 
Secretaries of State ; and Lord Camden, Lord 
John Cavendish, the Duke of Grafton, the Duke 
of Richmond, General Conway, Mr. Burke, and 
Colonel Barre, all hitherto avowed friends and 
champions of colonial rights, assigned distin- 
guished places in it. One of the leading objects 
to which the new government was understood 
to be pledged was peace with America, to which 
the acknowledgment of its independence, if found 
necessary, was to be no bar. 2 Upon this last 
point, however, there was reason to apprehend a 
want of harmony in the cabinet ; as it was 
known that Lord Shelburne, who was the repre- 
sentative of that portion of the Whig party 
which, of late years, had more particularly ac- 
knowledged the lead of Lord Chatham, sympa- 
thized in the dying protest of that great statesman 
against the dismemberment of the British Em- 
pi re. 

One of the first measures of the new adminis- 

1 Belsham's History of Great 2 See Annual Register for 1 782, 
Britain, vol. vn. pp. 283-285. p. 177. 



OVERTURES OF NEW ADMINISTRATION. 329 

fcration was to give to Sir Guy Carleton, who 
had been appointed by the late ministry l to suc- 
ceed Sir Henry Clinton in the command of the 
British army in America, and to Admiral Digby, 
powers to treat with Congress for the restoration 
of peace ; and, at the same time, communications 
were opened with the American ministers in Eu- 
rope. In this state of things, Mr. Madison, on 
the 14th of May, 1782, wrote from Philadelphia 
io his colleague Mr. Randolph, who was still in 
attendance on the legislature at Richmond, as 
follow,^ : — 

"The Ceres man-of-war, we are informed by a 
New York paper, arrived there in twenty-five 
days on the 5th instant, having on board his 
excellency Sir Guy Carleton, commander-in-chief, 
&c, and commissioner for making peace or war 
in North America, The intelligence brought by 
this conveyance is that the vibrations of power 
between the ministry and their rivals had termi- 
nated in the complete dissolution of the former, 
and organization of the latter. What change of 
measures will follow this change of men is yet 
concealed from us. 

" The bill for empowering the King to con- 
clude a peace or tru^e with the revolted Colo- 
nies in North America had been brought into 
Parliament on the 27th of March. The language 
of it is, at the same time, cautious and compre- 
hensive ; and seems to make eventual provision 

l Annual Register for 1782, p. 167. 
28* 



330 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

for our independence, without betraying any pur- 
pose of acknowledging it. The terms, peace and 
truce, are scarcely applicable to any other con- 
ventions than national ones; and the King is 
authorized to annul or suspend all acts of Par- 
liament whatever, as far as they speak of the 
Colonies. He can, therefore, clearly remove any 
parliamentary bar to his recognition of our inde- 
pendence ; and I know of no other bar to his 
treating with America on that ground 

"All this, however, is very different from a 
real peace. The King will assuredly prefer war, 
as long as his ministry will stand by him ; and 
the sentiments of his present ministry, particu- 
larly of Shelburne, are as peremptory against the 
dismemberment of the empire as those of any 
of their predecessors. They will, at least, try a 
campaign of negotiation against the United States, 
and of war against their other enemies, before 
they submit to it. It is probable that the arri- 
val of Sir Guy Carleton will not long precede 
an opening of the first campaign. Congress will, 
I am persuaded, give a proper verbal answer to 
any overtures with which he may insult them ; 
but the best answer will come from the States, 
in such supplies of men and money as will expel 
him and all our other enemies from the United 
States." 

The language of Mr. Madison was well justified 
by the nature of Sir Guy Carleton's commission, 
so far as it was disclosed in the communication 



PASSPORT REFUSED. 331 

addressed by that officer to General Washington, 
immediately after his arrival in the United States. 
In announcing his arrival, and appointment to 
the command of the British army in America, 
he simply transmitted copies of the resolution of 
the House of Commons of the 27th of February, 
of the address to the King in pursuance of it, and 
of the King's answer; together with the bill for 
a truce or peace, which was brought in, but had 
not then been passed by either House of Parlia- 
ment, In these papers, the United States were 
still denominated "revolted Colonies"; and while 
a vague and indeterminate wish was intimated 
for a restoration of harmony with them, the 
motive of the proffered reconciliation was ex- 
pressly avowed to be to enable England to di- 
rect her efforts with less distraction and more 
effect against her European enemies, — in other 
words, against an ally of the United States, to 
whom they owed the most solemn obligations of 
justice, honor, and gratitude, as well as of 
plighted faith. Overtures of such a character, 
studiously framed, too, in the vaguest possible 
language, as to the terms of reconciliation, were 
nothing less than insulting ; and it is not sur- 
prising, therefore, that General Washington de- 
clined granting a passport for the messenger of 
Sir Guy Carleton to convey them to Congress, 
nor that Congress, when the application was 
made known to them by the commander-in-chief, 
directed him positively to refuse it. 1 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. p. 31. 



332 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

It was now evident that the attempt, which 
had been so imblushingly made by the English 
commissioners in 1778, to debauch the United 
States from the alliance with France, and to en- 
trap them by insidious manoeuvres for a separate 
peace, was to be renewed. Advances of this 
kind had already been made to the American 
ministers in Europe, and repelled by them, as 
they deserved to be. At the same time, efforts 
were used to detach France from the United 
States by offers involving the highest advantage 
to her interests ; but she spurned the allurement 
in a spirit of loyalty to her engagements which 
entitled her to a manly and faithful return. 
Every dictate of prudence and safety, as well as 
every sentiment of honor, forbade a separation 
from France in this pregnant and decisive mo- 
ment. " Our business," said Mr. Madison, in writ- 
ing to a friend then in communication with the 
legislature of Virginia, "is plain. Fidelity to our 
allies, and vigor in military preparations — these, 
and these alone, will secure us against all polit- 
ical devices." 1 

The legislature of Virginia very promptly an- 
nounced its sentiments in a series of resolutions, 
unanimously adopted, of which one declared that 
"a proposition from the enemy to all or any of 
these United States for peace or truce, separate 
from their allies, is insidious and inadmissible " ; 
and another pledged " the Assembly to exert the 

1 Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 125. 



ACTION OF STATES AND CONGRESS. 333 

utmost power of the State to carry on the war 
with vigor and effect, until peace shall be ob- 
tained in a manner consistent with our national 
faith and federal union." * 

Resolutions in the same unbending tone were 
passed, and with like promptitude and unanimity, 
by the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and New Jersey ; and such was soon the declared 
sense of the representative assemblies of almost 
all the States. The British commissioners, how- 
ever, still continued their endeavours to operate 
on the sentiments of the mass of the nation. 
On the 2d of August, 1782, they addressed 
another letter to General Washington, communi- 
cating to him, by authority, intelligence of the 
opening of negotiations at Paris, and that Mr. 
Grenville, on behalf of the English government, 
had been directed " to propose the independence 
of the thirteen Colonies, in the first instance " ; 
with the understanding, however, they added, 
that the loyalists should be restored by the sev- 
eral States to their possessions, or receive a full 
compensation for the confiscation of their estates. 2 
This letter they caused to be immediately pub- 
lished. 

Congress, fearing that the publication might 
exert an unfavorable influence on the firmness 
of the public mind, as well as upon the military 
preparations of the States, met it by the adoption 

1 Hen. Stat., vol. xr. p. 545. 

2 Sparks's Washington, vol. vni. pp. 540, 541. 



334 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of a resolution declaring that "the letter of the 
commissioners, as mere matter of information, 
was inexplicit as to the nature and extent of 
the independency directed to be proposed by 
the British plenipotentiary," and furnished no 
ground "on which any public measure can or 
ought to be taken." They therefore recommended 
"to the several States in the Union not to 
remit of their exertions for carrying on the war 
with vigor, as the only effectual means of securing 
the settlement of a safe and honorable peace." 1 

With regard to the proposal of independence 
by the British agent at Paris, it was soon dis- 
covered that a marked divergence of opinion had 
manifested itself in the councils of Lord Rock- 
ingham's administration. Mr. Fox, and those 
members of the cabinet who were most inti- 
mately connected with the head of the adminis- 
tration, were undoubtedly in favor of a frank 
and unequivocal acknowledgment of American 
independence. But Lord Shelburne and his 
friends, belonging to that section of the Whig 
party which was led by the late Earl of Chat- 
ham, could not reconcile themselves, without a 
long and painful struggle, to the loss of so rich 
and magnificent a heritage of the British crown ; 
and in this, they represented the personal feel- 
ings and unwavering policy of the King. 

Mr. Fox and Lord Shelburne, as we have seen, 
were the two secretaries of state in the Rocking 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. p. GO. 



ANOTHER CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION. 335 

ham administration ; one for the northern, the 
other for the southern department. Each of 
them sent an agent to Paris to enter into com- 
munication with Dr. Franklin and the Count de 
Vergennes on the subject of peace. Mr. Os- 
wald was the organ of Lord Shelburne, and ex- 
ceedingly guarded in his communications. Mr. 
Thomas G-renville appeared as the representa- 
tive of Mr. Fox ; and in an interview with Dr. 
Franklin, while yet unfurnished with his full pow- 
ers to treat, said he was instructed to acknowl- 
edge the independence of the United States in 
the first instance, and previous to the commence- 
ment of the treaty. About this time, news was 
received in Ens-land of the brilliant and decisive 
victory achieved by Sir George Rodney over the 
French fleet in the West Indies under the Count 
de Grasse. Diplomatic delays ensued on the 
part of the British government, which were at- 
tributed to the effect of this unlooked-for bel- 
ligerent success. 

Soon after, the administration of Lord Rock- 
ingham was dissolved by the sudden death of 
the virtuous and high-minded nobleman at the 
head of it. Lord Shelburne then became first 
lord of the treasury ; upon which Mr. Fox, 
Lord John Cavendish, Mr. Burke, and others of 
the Rockingham connection immediately resigned. 
In the new ministry, the younger Pitt com- 
menced his long and brilliant official career, with 
the appointment of chancellor of the exchequer, 



336 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

and Lord Grantham and Mr. Thomas Townsend 
were made secretaries of state ; while Lord Cam- 
den, General Conway, Colonel Barre, the Dukes 
of Grafton and Richmond, Lord Keppel, and 
others of the old Whigs, continued to hold their 
places in the government. In the debates and 
explanations which followed the change of ad- 
ministration, the new premier made no secret of 
his repugnance to the acknowledgment of Amer- 
ican independence. "His opinion still was," he 
wiid, "as it ever had been, that whenever that 
acknowledgment should be made by the British 
Parliament, the sun of England's glory was set 
forever." 1 It may well be conceived what sen- 
timents, both of astonishment and distrust, were 
excited in America by this declaration of the 
minister, after the authorized communication made 
by Sir Guy Carleton and Admiral Digby to Gen- 
eral Washington, and the diplomatic assurances 
of Mr. Grenville to Dr. Franklin at Paris. 

The course of policy embraced by the new 
administration seems to have been to bring 
about a reunion of the Colonies with the parent 
country by allowing them a wholly independent 
legislature, to the entire exclusion of any author- 
ity of the British Parliament, as had been re- 
cently done in the case of Ireland, but retaining 
the sovereignty of the King as the common head 

i Bclsham's History of Great Washington written at the time. 

Britain, vol. vti. p. 325. See the Sparks's Washington, vol. viii. 

same declaration of Lord Shel- p. 344. 
burne cited in a letter of General 



NEW MINISTERIAL DEVICE. 337 

of the whole empire. The outline of this plan 
had been given forth by General Conway, as 
well as by the first lord of the treasury; 1 and 
hopes were entertained that, by a system of 
blandishment and conciliation, the people of 
America might be finally won over to it All 
the arts of Sir Guy Carleton, with the aid of 
private emissaries in the different States, were 
employed to dispose the public mind for such a 
compromise ; which was but a new device to 
break through the treaty of alliance with France, 
of which "the direct and essential end" was, 
upon its face, declared to be "the liberty, sover- 
eignty, and independence, absolute and unlimited, 
of the United States." 2 

In this state of things, Congress again thought 
proper to interpose its warning voice ; and upon 
the report of a committee, of which Mr. Madison 
was a member, (as in every proceeding, con- 
nected with the assertion of the national honor 
and independence, he now took a leading and 
most active part,) the following declaration was, 
on the 4th of October, 1782, unanimously adopted 
and published to the world : — 

" It appears that the British court still flatters it- 
self with the vain hope of prevailing on the United 
States to agree to some terms of dependence 
upon Great Britain, or at least to a separate 

1 See Diplomatic Correspond- also Sparks's Washington, vol. vin. 

ence of the American Revolution, p. 328. 

vol. in. pp. 373-375 and 483,484, 2 See Article 2d of Treaty of 

and vol. vm. pp. 116, 117. See Alliance. 
VOL. i. 29 



338 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

peace ; and there is reason to believe that com- 
missioners niay be sent to America to offer prop- 
ositions of that nature to the United States, or 
that secret emissaries may be employed to de- 
lude and deceive. In order, therefore, to extin- 
guish ill-founded hopes, to frustrate insidious 
attempts, and to manifest to the whole world the 
purity of the intentions, and the fixed and unal- 
terable determination of the United States, — 

" Resolved, unanimously, that Congress are sin- 
cerely desirous of an honorable and permanent 
peace ; that, as the only means of obtaining it, 
they will inviolably adhere to the treaty of alli- 
ance with his Most Christian Majesty, and con- 
clude neither a separate peace nor truce with 
Great Britain ; that they will prosecute the war 
with vigor until, by the blessing of God on the 
united arms, a peace shall be happily accom- 
plished, by which, the full and absolute sover- 
eignty and independence of these United States 
having been duly assured, their rights and inter- 
ests, as well as those of their allies, shall be 
effectually provided for and secured." 1 

At the same time, it was declared that Con- 
gress would enter into no discussion of any over- 
tures for peace but "in confidence and in concert 
with his Most Christian Majesty " ; 2 and, " to 
guard against the secret artifices and machina- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. terms, had been made in the pre- 
pp. 84, 85. ceding month of May. See Se- 

2 A declaration, in the same cret Journals. 



SPIRITED RESOLUTIONS OF VIRGINIA. 339 

tions of the enemy," it was recommended to the 
respective States "to be vigilant and active in 
detecting and seizing British emissaries and spies," 
and, in general, to prohibit all intercourse be- 
tween the enemy and the inhabitants of the 
country. 

The legislature of Virginia, which assembled 
soon after the adoption of these resolutions by 
Congress, responded to them in a spirit of great 
energy and firmness. Declaring that an endeav- 
our to sow dissensions between the United States 
and their generous ally, as well as to create in 
the minds of the people a dislike to their pres- 
ent government and rulers, was the system now 
plainly pursued by the British ministry, whereby 
it was hoped to effect that which the force of 
arms had not been able to accomplish, they di- 
rected the governor to use his utmost vigilance 
to prevent all persons, whom he might suspect 
of being secret emissaries of the enemy, from 
coming into the Commonwealth; and they in- 
structed the delegates of the State in Congress 
not to consent to the opening of communications 
with any agent or minister of the English gov- 
ernment, "upon the subject of a peace separate 
from our great ally, the King of France, nor un- 
less the independence of America be, in the most 
ample manner, acknowledged as a preliminary 
thereto." 

They also resolved that all demands or appli- 
cations of the British court for the restitution 



340 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of the property of the loyalists, which had been 
confiscated by the laws of the State, were wholly 
inadmissible ; and they made it the duty of their 
delegates in Congress to move a positive instruc- 
tion to the ministers, charged with the negotia- 
tions for peace, not to agree to any such resti- 
tution, nor "to submit that the laws made by 
any independent State of the Union be subjected 
to the adjudication of any power or powers on 
earth." These proceedings were all passed by 
an unanimous vote. 1 

There was another proceeding of this Assem- 
bly, so characteristic of the times and of the 
spirit which animated the body, that it is im- 
possible to pass it by unnoticed. Mr. Arthur 
Lee was at this time one of the delegates of 
the State in Congress. He had been educated 
in England, and fixed his residence, previous to 
the Revolution, in London. He was among the 
earliest and most spirited opponents of the un- 
constitutional measures of the British Parliament 
towards America, and was the agent both of Vir- 
ginia and Massachusetts in their colonial inter- 
course with the mother country. After the 
occurrence of the rupture, he was appointed by 
Congress a joint commissioner with Dr. Franklin 
and Silas Deane to negotiate treaties with the 
powers of Europe, and with them concluded and 
signed the treaties of alliance and commerce 
with France in 1778. 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1782, pp. 69, 
70. 



CONDUCT OF ARTHUR LEE. 341 

Afterwards at issue with Deane, the infirmities 
of his temper betrayed him into unpleasant con- 
troversies also with Dr. Franklin ; and his con- 
duct rendered him at the same time unacceptable 
to the French government. He returned to 
America in 1780, and was soon chosen a mem- 
ber of the legislature of Virginia. By that body 
he was elected, in December, 1781, one of the 
delegates of the State in Congress. His talents 
were of a high order ; but notwithstanding the 
many and undoubted proofs he had given of his 
attachment to the interests and liberties of Amer- 
ica, his unfriendliness to Dr. Franklin, and his 
resentment of the want of confidence in him 
manifested hy the French government, were sup- 
posed to have produced in his mind a sentiment 
of disaffection to the alliance itself. The rela- 
tions, moreover, of particular intimacy which he 
was known to have held with Lord Shelburne, 
and other persons of rank and consideration in 
England, naturally made his conduct and opin- 
ions an object of jealousy at the present mo- 
ment. 

A letter addressed by him to Mr. Mann Page, 
a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia, 
of which body Mr. Lee himself was also a mem- 
ber, (there being at that period no legal incom- 
patibility between a seat in Congress and one in 
the State legislature,) was spoken of as containing 
highly obnoxious opinions. This led to the adop- 
tion of the following resolution : — 

29* 



342 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

"That the committee of privileges and elec- 
tions do inquire into the subject-matter of a 
letter said to have been written by Arthur 
Lee, Esq., a delegate of this State in Congress, 
to Mann Page, Esq., a member of this House, 
containing matter injurious to the public inter- 
ests ; and that the said committee do call for 
persons and papers for their information." 

A report was made by the committee excul- 
pating Mr. Lee, on the ground of his letter being 
a private and confidential one, not intended for 
the public eye, and because his former services 
placed him above the suspicion of designs inim- 
ical to the State, or America in general. A sub- 
stitute, moved by Mr. Henry Tazewell, — to the 
effect that the sentiments contained in the letter 
were such as, exposed to the public eye, "might 
create in our allies a distrust of our representa- 
tives," and the writing of it, therefore, was not 
to be justified, — received the votes of a consid- 
erable number of most respectable members ; but 
the report of the committee was finally adopted 
by a majority of the House. This result, how- 
ever, did not produce acquiescence. A few days 
afterwards, a formal motion was made that Mr. 
Lee be recalled from Congress ; and, at the same 
time, information, subscribed by distinguished and 
responsible names, was laid before the House by 
a leading member in his place, 1 casting farther 

1 This member was Colon elJohn Mr. Edmund Randolph, resigned. 
Francis Mercer, just chosen a del- Sec Journal of House of Delegates, 
egate to Congress in the place of October session, 1782, pp. 71, 72. 



PROCEEDINGS AGAINST MR. LEE. 343 

suspicions upon his political conduct and senti- 
ments. 

The sequel of the motion is thus given in a 
letter from Mr. Edmund Randolph to Mr. Madi- 
son of the 27th of December, 1782: — 

"The attack which I hinted at in my last, as 
being made upon Mr. Lee, was pushed with great 
vigor. Upon the motion for his recall, the ayes 
were 39, and the noes 41. His defence was pa- 
thetic. It called upon the Assembly to remem- 
ber his services, to protect his honor, and not to 
put it out of his power to profit his country by 
his labors. The failure of some of his enemies 
to attend alone saved him. Should Henry come 
to the next session, it seems impossible he should 
be again elected." 

Nothing, perhaps, could mark more strongly 
the inflexible determination of the legislature of 
Virginia to maintain the national faith and honor, 
and to set at defiance every contrary device of 
British policy and intrigue, than this narrow es- 
cape from the stigma of its condemnation of one 
of its most honored servants and members, j)lead- 
ing, with pathetic effect, the merit of former and 
unquestionable services, and sustained by the all- 
prevailing eloquence of a brother, Richard Henry 
Lee, who stood at his side, and covered him with 
the aegis of his popularity and fame. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Negotiations for Peace opened at Paris — Questions to be adjusted, 
National Independence, Boundaries, Fisheries — Mr. Madison suc- 
ceeds in his Efforts in Congress to place the last two on the same 
Footing in the Negotiation — Provisional Articles agreed upon and 
concluded between the British and American Commissioners — Not 
communicated to the French Government until after their Signa- 
ture — Dissatisfaction in France at Conduct of American Minis- 
ters — Their Despatches laid before Congress — Unfounded Sus- 
picions of the Sincerity of France manifested by Mr. Jay and Mr. 
Adams — Recommendation of Secretary of Foreign Affairs — De- 
bates in Congress — Bold and manly Speech of Mr. Madison — 
Report of Committee on Despatches — Letter addressed by Secre- 
tary of Foreign Affairs to American Commissioners — Reflections 
on the French Alliance — Services and Conduct of France in the 
War of Independence — Just and noble Sentiment of Lafayette. 

The firm attitude and language of the public 
bodies in the United States, strengthening the 
hands of their representatives in Europe, at length 
brought home to the British ministry the abso- 
lute conviction that, if they desired peace with 
America, it was not to be had by any attempt, 
open or covert, to separate her from her ally, 
or upon any terms short of unqualified independ- 
ence. In little more than two months after the 



NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 345 

formation of the new ministry, a commission was 
issued to Mr. Oswald, empowering him to treat 
with any commissioners who should be appointed 
on behalf of "the thirteen United States of 
America." Mr. Fitzherbert 1 had been already 
sent to Paris, in the place of Mr. Grenville, with 
powers to treat for a general peace with France, 
Spain, and Holland. 

The negotiations now proceeded with activity. 
Mr. Jay, one of the American commissioners, had 
arrived in Paris from Madrid several months be- 
fore, and been busily engaged, in conjunction with 
Dr. Franklin, in discussing, both with the French 
government and the agents of Great Britain, 
some important preliminary questions connected 
with the treaty. Mr. Adams did not arrive from 
Holland, — where he had been employed in pro- 
tracted negotiations, which he had just brought 
to a successful termination, — until the latter part 
of October; but was thenceforward earnestly and 
unremittingly associated in the labors of his col- 
leagues. Mr. Laurens, who had been released 
but a few months from his confinement in the 
Tower, appeared yet later, and only in time to 
unite in the last scenes of the negotiation. 2 



1 Afterwards Lord St. Helens. him that the motives which led to 

2 Mr. Laurens had, in the first his appointment still existed, and 
instance, declined the appointment that his services in the execution 
of commissioner to treat of peace ; of the commission could not be dis- 
but Congress, when apprised of his pensed with. Secret Journals, vol. 
non-acceptance, was induced to m. p. 213. A day or two after the 
pass a resolution directing the sec- passage of this resolution, a num- 
retary of foreign affairs to inform ber of the Parliamentary Register 



346 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The independence of America being now, in 
some sort, an agreed question, the principal mai> 
' ters which remained to be adjusted, were, on the 
part of the United States, the settlement of ex- 
terior boundaries, and the right to participate in 
the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland and 
other banks in the North American seas. On 
the part of Great Britain, the question which 
seemed most to interest the feelings, if not the 
policy, of her government, was the restitution of 
the confiscated estates of the loyalists, or com- 
pensation for their loss ; and after that, the re- 
covery of debts due to her subjects from Amer- 
ican citizens. 

With regard to the boundaries claimed by the 
United States, as well as the fisheries, we have 
seen that neither of them was formally made a 

was received, containing a petition paper, at the time, seems alone to 

■which had been addressed by Mr. have prevented the adoption of the 

Laurens to the House of Commons, motion. 

praying to be discharged from his We add with pleasure that the 
confinement, and couched in terms patriotism and vigilance which Mr. 
studiously framed to propitiate the Laurens manifested after his liber- 
favor of those to whom it was ad- ation, in guarding the rights of his 
dressed. Mr. Madison, jealous of country against the insidious policy 
the dignity of his country, as soon of the English cabinet, atoned, in 
as he became satisfied of the genu- Mr. Madison's estimation, for this 
ineness of this paper, -— the tone of momentary departure from the 
which appeared to him so unbe- elevated bearing of an American 
coming the position of a representa- representative — the unhappy ef- 
tiveofthe United States abroad, — feet, doubtless, of a long and de- 
moved that the resolution previ- bilitating confinement, and the 
ously adopted should not be trans- derangement of health, mental 
mitted till the further order of and bodily, which it superinduced. 
Congress. A disposition with many See Madison Debates and Corre* 
to discredit the authenticity of the spondence, vol. i. pp. 175-178. 



MR. MADISON'S MOTION IN CONGRESS. 347 

part of the ultimatum of peace laid down in the 
general instructions of the 15th of June, 1781. 1 
Both were, nevertheless, deemed objects of vital 
importance to the United States, and invariably 
so treated by Congress in all their deliberations. 

In the original instructions of the 14th of Au- 
gust, 1779, the recognition of the boundaries 
claimed by the United States was, as we have 
heretofore stated, made a sine qua non of peace, 
while the fisheries were not. The latter were to 
be included, however, in a distinct commercial 
negotiation, in which the American minister was 
instructed "not to agree to any treaty of com- 
merce with Great Britain, without an explicit 
stipulation on her part not to molest or disturb 
the inhabitants of the United States in the riehts 
of fishery claimed by them." 2 

The settlement of boundaries having, against 
the wishes of the Southern States who were 
more particularly interested in that question, 
been pretermitted in the ultimatum for peace as 
fixed by the instructions of June, 1781; and the 
fisheries being still a sine qua non of a treaty of 
commerce under the commercial instructions given 
in August, 1779, which remained unrevoked ; Mr. 
Madison, in order to restore an equitable balance 
between these two great sectional interests, 
moved, on the 29th of June, 1781, that no 
treaty of commerce should be made with Great 

1 Ante, pp. 256, 257. 

2 Ante, pp. 254, 255, and Secret Journals, vol. n. pp. 229-231. 



348 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Britain unless, in addition to the required stipu- 
lation in favor of the fisheries, there were stipu- 
lations also in favor of all the objects embraced 
in the ultimatum for peace established in August, 
1779. 1 

This motion was negatived by the votes of six 
States out of eleven present ; and the fisheries, 
the peculiar object of solicitude to the Northern 
States, were thus left in possession of the prefer- 
ential footing they held under the instructions 
for a treaty of commerce. As the only means, 
then, of arriving at that impartiality which a just 
national sentiment demanded, Mr. Madison, a few 
clays afterwards, (12th of July, 1781,) submitted 
a motion that "the commission and instructions 
for negotiating a treaty of commerce between 
these United States and Great Britain, given to 
the Hon. John Adams on the 29th of September, 
1779, be and they are hereby revoked." This 
proposition was agreed to by eight out of eleven 
States, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Con- 
necticut alone dissenting. 2 

A rightful equality being thus reestablished, 
Mr. Madison had soon an opportunity of evincing 
the spirit of comprehensive nationality with which 
he was animated. He was one of a committee 
to which an urgent representation of the legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts, pressing upon Congress 

1 See Secret Journals, vol. n. tioned in the resolution was the 
P- 458. date of the commission, but not of 

2 Idem, pp. 463, 464. The date the instructions, which were agreed 
(29th of September. 1779) men- to on the 14th of August, 1779. 



NATIONALITY OF MR. MADISON'S VIEWS. 349 

the expediency of embracing the fisheries in a 
settlement of the terms of peace, was referred. 
In the report of that committee, made on the 
8th of January, 1782, and bearing undoubted 
traces of Mr. Madison's luminous pen, is a pow- 
erful argument in favor of the right of the in- 
habitants of the United States to participate in 
the fisheries, standing side by side with a con- 
clusive vindication of the boundaries claimed by 
them ; and the committee recommend that the 
American negotiators be instructed " to contend 
for that right as equally desired and expected 
by Congress with any of the other claims here- 
tofore declared to be objects of the 'desires and 
expectations ' of Congress." ] 

In a representation to the minister of France, 
prepared by another committee, of which Mr. 
Madison was also a leading member, and adopted 
by Congress on the 3d of October, 1782, the 
fisheries again assumed their equal rank in an 
enumeration of the rights claimed by the United 
States. In that imposing paper, the declaration 
is emphatically repeated that " Congress consider 
the territorial claims of the United States as 
heretofore made, their participation of the fish- 
eries, and the free navigation of the Mississippi, 
not only as their indubitable rights, but as essen- 
tial to their prosperity." 2 

With such repeated and unequivocal expres- 
sions of the intentions and wishes of Congress in 

1 See Secret Journals, vol. in. pp. 150-161. 2 Idem, pp. 241-243. 
VOL. I. 30 



350 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

regard to these great objects of national in- 
terest, — enforced, too, as they had been, at an 
early day, by a most able letter of instructions 
from the secretary of foreign affairs to one of 
the negotiators for peace, 1 — the American min- 
isters could be at no loss to understand with 
what earnestness and perseverance they were to 
be insisted on ; although, for certain political con- 
siderations operating at the time, they had not 
been formally made a part of the ultimatum for 
peace. They were at length yielded by the Brit- 
ish commissioners, and acknowledged in the pro- 
visional articles of peace agreed upon ; but at 
the price of a stipulation that " Congress should 
earnestly recommend to the legislatures of the 
respective States to provide for the restitution 
of the confiscated estates of the loyalists." 

This concession was in direct conflict with the 
feelings and remonstrances of the States in which 
such confiscations were made ; and had also been 
strongly deprecated by the instructions which, 
from time to time, were addressed by Congress 
to its plenipotentiaries. But as some stipulation 
on the subject was made by the British govern- 
ment an indispensable condition of peace, and 
the American negotiators had frankly declared 
there was no power in Congress to act au- 
thoritatively in the matter, a simple recommen- 

1 Letter of Mr. R. R. Livingston spondenee of the American Revo- 
to Dr. Franklin of the 7th of Jan- lution, vol. m. pp. 268-281. 
uary, 1782, in Diplomatic Corre- 



PROVISIONAL ARTICLES OF PEACE. 351 

dation of the measure by Congress to the States 
was finally agreed upon. There was a stipula- 
tion also that " creditors on either side should 
meet with no lawful impediment" to the recov- 
ery of the full value of their debts. 

These provisional articles were signed by the 
American and British commissioners on the 30th 
of November, 1782, "to be inserted in and con- 
stitute a treaty of peace between the crown of 
Great Britain and the United States of America, 
when the terms of a peace should be agreed 
upon between Great Britain and France." They 
were not made known to the French govern- 
ment until after they had been concluded and 
actually signed by the negotiators ; nor had the 
American commissioners apprised the Count de 
Vergennes of the successive steps and progress 
of the negotiation, while it was pending. 

This reserve, and apparent distrust, were so 
contrary to the spirit which had hitherto char- 
acterized the intercourse of the two governments, 
and were so directly opposed to the repeated and 
solemn assurances of Congress that " they would 
hearken to no propositions for peace but in con- 
fidence and in concert with his Most Christian 
Majesty," 1 that the mortification felt at a seem- 
ing departure from the pledges of the national 
faith was no small abatement from the general 
satisfaction given by the substance of the provis- 

1 See Declarations of the 31st of May and 3d of October, 1782, 
before referred to. 



352 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ional articles. The unpleasant sentiment thus 
excited was increased by the fact that a tecret 
article was agreed to by the American commis- 
sioners, stipulating a more favorable northern 
boundary for Florida in the event of its conquest 
by the arms of Great Britain, than if it should 
remain in the possession of Spain at the termi- 
nation of the war. This stipulation was not ad- 
mitted into the body of the provisional articles, 
but formed a separate and additional article, was 
separately signed by the commissioners, and was 
concealed from the French government, even 
when the other articles were communicated to it. 
The despatches of the American commissioners, 
containing the history and results of their nego- 
tiations, were received in the United States on 
the 11th clay of March, 1783. They were laid 
before Congress on the 12th ; and four days were 
occupied in reading them. The impressions pro- 
duced by them in Congress are thus described 
by Mr. Madison in his diary of the proceedings 
of that body, under date of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 
and 15th of March : — 

"These days were employed in reading the 
despatches brought on Wednesday morning by 
Captain Barney, commanding the Washington 
packet. They were dated from December the 4th 
to the 24th, from the ministers plenipotentiary 
for peace, with journals of preceding transactions, 
and were accompanied by the preliminary arti- 
cles signed on the 30th of November, between 



RECEPTION OF TREATY BY CONGRESS. 353 

the said ministers and Mr. Oswald, the British 
minister. 

"The terms granted to America appeared to 
Congress, on the whole, extremely liberal. It 
was observed by several, however, that the stip- 
ulation obliging Congress to recommend to the 
States a restitution of confiscated property, al- 
though it could scarcely be understood that the 
States would comply, had the appearance of sac- 
rificing the dignity of Congress to the pride of 
the British King. 

"The separate and secret manner in which our 
ministers had proceeded with respect to France, 
and the confidential manner with respect to the 
British ministers, affected different members of 
Congress differently. Many of the most judicious 
members thought they had all been in some 
measure ensnared by the dexterity of the British 
minister, and particularly disapproved of the con- 
duct of Mr. Jay in submitting to the enemy his 
jealousy of the French, without even the knowl- 
edge of Dr. Franklin, and of the unguarded 
manner in which he, Mr. Adams, and Dr. Frank- 
lin had given, in writing, sentiments unfriendly 
to our ally, and serving as weapons for the in- 
sidious policy of the enemy. The separate article 
was most offensive, being considered as obtained 
bv Great Britain, not for the sake of the terri- 
tory ceded to her, but as a means of disuniting 
the United States and France, as inconsistent 

with the spirit of the alliance, and a dishonor- 
so* 



354 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

able departure from the candor, rectitude, and 
plain dealing professed by Congress. 

"The dilemma in which Congress were placed 
was sorely felt. If they should communicate to 
the French minister everything, they exposed 
their own ministers; destroyed all confidence in 
them on the part of France; and might engage 
them in dangerous factions against Congress, 
which was the more to be apprehended, as the 
terms obtained by their management were pop- 
ular in their nature. If Congress should conceal 
everything, and the French court should, either 
from the enemy or otherwise, come to the knowl- 
edge of it, all confidence would be at an end be- 
tween the allies ; the enemy might be encouraged 
to make fresh experiments, and the public safety, 
as well as the national honor, be endangered. 

" Upon the whole, it was thought and observed 
by many that our ministers, particularly Mr. Jay, 
instead of making allowances for and affording 
facilities to France, in her delicate situation be- 
tween Spain and the United States, had joined 
with the enemy in taking advantage of it to in- 
crease her perplexity ; and that they had macte 
the safety of their country depend on the sin- 
cerity of Lord Shelburne, which was suspected 
by all the world besides, and even by most of 
themselves. [See Mr. Laurens's letter, December 
the twenty-fourth.] 

"The displeasure of the French court at the 
neglect of our ministers to maintain a confiden- 



CONDUCT OF AMERICAN MINISTERS. .;:»f> 

tial intercourse, and particularly to communicate 
the preliminary articles before they were signed, 
was not only signified to the secretary of for- 
eign affairs, but to sundry members, by the Chev- 
alier de la Luzerne. To the former he showed 
a letter from the Count de Vero-ennes 1 directing 
him to remonstrate to Congress against the con- 
duct of the American ministers, (which a subse- 
quent letter countermanded, alleging that Dr. 
Franklin had given some explanations that had 
been admitted) ; and he told Mr. Livingston that 
the American ministers had deceived the Count 
de Vergennes by telling him, a few days before 
the preliminary articles were signed, that the 
agreement on them was at a distance ; that when 
he carried the articles signed into council, the 
King expressed great indignation, and asked, if 
the Americans served him thus before peace was 
made, and whilst they were begging for aids, 

1 A copy of this letter, dated the from the peace ; but you certainly 

i9th of December, 1782, was ob- will not be less surprised than I 

tained by Mr. Sparks from the have been at the conduct of the 

French archives, and will be found commissioners." In another part 

in his edition of Franklin's Works, of the letter, the Count de Ver- 

vol. ix. pp. 452-458. It is written gennes says if he had been willing 

with nobleness and dignity, and, in to act as the American ministers 

its whole tone and spirit, affords had done, he could long ago have 

convincing proof of the injustice concluded a treaty between France 

of the suspicions entertained by and England ; but he adds : * l The 

some of the American commission- King has been resolved that all his 

ers. It begins by saying to the allies should be satisfied, being de- 

minister : " You will surely be grat- termined to continue the war, what- 

ified, as well as myself, with the ever advantages may be offered to 

extensive advantages which our al- him, if England is disposed to 

lies, the Americans, are to receive wrong any one of them." 



356 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

what was to be expected after peace, &c. To 
several members he mentioned that the King 
had been surprised and displeased, and that he 
said he did not think he had such allies to deal 
with. To one of them who asked whether the 
court of France meant to complain to Congress, 
Monsieur Marbois answered that great powers 
never complained, but that they felt and remem- 
bered. It did not appear from any circumstances 
that the separate article was known to the court 
of France, or to the Chevalier cle la Luzerne." 

The part played by Mr. Jay in this diplomatic 
drama seems to have been a very prominent 
one, and exhibited strong suspicions of the integ- 
rity of the French councils. It appears from a 
letter addressed by him to the secretary of for- 
eign affairs on the 18th of September, 1782, and 
received in the United States several months be- 
fore the despatches announcing the result of the 
negotiation, that, viewing the conduct and con- 
versations of the Count cle Vergennes through 
a discoloring medium, he early took up the im- 
pression that the policy of the French govern- 
ment was adverse to a prompt and frank ac- 
knowledgment of the independence of the United 
States on the part of Great Britain. He attrib- 
uted to them the Machiavelian design "of post- 
poning an acknowledgment of our independence 
by England to the conclusion of a general peace, 
in order to keep us under their direction until 
not only their and our objects are attained, but 



MR. JAY'S SUSPICIONS OF FRANCE. 357 

also until Spain shall bo gratified in her demands 
to exclude everybody from the Gulf of Mexico." * 

He had had, also, some informal communica- 
tions with Monsieur Bayncval, the principal sec- 
retary of Count de Vergennes, in which the 
secretary, expressing, as he professed to do, his 
"personal ideas," sought to moderate the claims 
of the United States with regard to Western ter- 
ritory. This was done, doubtless, in order to 
remove, as speedily as possible, all obstacles to 
an amicable adjustment with Spain, as well as 
Great Britain, and thereby to facilitate the rees- 
tablishnient of a general peace. But these com- 
munications were interpreted by Mr. Jay into a 
conclusive proof that the French government was 
hostile to, and would with all its influence op- 
pose, the extension of the United States to the 
Mississippi. In like manner, an intercepted let- 
ter of Monsieur Marbois, secretary of the French 
legation in the United States, containing some 
loose speculations of the writer on the fisheries, 
which was placed in the hands of Mr. Jay by 
the British agents in Paris, was considered by 
him as revealing, beyond dispute, the secret but 
determined hostility of the French government 
to the American claims on that subject. 

In the United States, the constant and undis- 
guised language held by the French minister to 
Congress was directed to inculcate moderation in 

1 Diplomatic Correspondence of and elaborate letter of the 1 7th of 
the American Revolution, vol. viii. November, 1782, in same volume, 
p. 12G. See also Mr. Jay's long pp. 129-208. 



358 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

our demands on all these questions ; but this was 
well understood to proceed from the great anx- 
iety of France for peace, — now rendered doubly 
necessary to her by her financial distresses, — as 
well as from her natural desire to preserve har- 
mony and good relations with her ancient ally, 
Spain, whose pretensions, in several particulars, 
unfortunately came into conflict with the just 
claims of the United States. But Mr. Jay, in 
the turn which his sentiments had taken, could 
not view these things in the same charitable and 
philosophical light. 

His mind, constantly wrought upon from within 
and without, saw in the most natural and ordi- 
nary occurrences "confirmation strong as proof 
of holy writ" of the truth of his preconceived 
suspicions. Monsieur Rayneval, about this time, 
was sent over to London to ascertain, by per- 
sonal communication with the British ministers, 
how far the sincerity of their pacific professions 
was to be relied on, and to smooth the way to 
a restoration of peace by a frank understanding, 
if possible, on certain points of fundamental im- 
portance. Mr. Jay was immediately " persuaded " 
that the object of Monsieur Rayneval's mission 
was to prejudice the American claims with the 
British cabinet, to prevail upon Lord Shelburne 
not to do anything which should amount to a 
preliminary acknowledgment of American inde- 
pendence, but to enter into a compact with 
France to divide the fisheries with her, and the 



SUSPICIONS PROVED TO BE UNFOUNDED. 359 

Western territory with Spain, to the entire ex- 
clusion of the United States from both ! * With 
these irritant suspicions festering into morbid ac- 
tivity, he adopted the extraordinary expedient 
of making one of Lord Shelburne's emissaries in 
Paris the depositary of his confidence, and of 
sending him over to London, without the knowl- 
edge of his colleague, Dr. Franklin, charged with 
representations from himself to Lord Shelburne 
to countervail the suspected treachery of the 
French government. 

An historical inquirer, whose candor and love 
of truth are worthy of his superior industry and 
judgment, and who has had free access to the 
diplomatic archives of both the French and Brit- 
ish governments, and especially the confidential 
correspondence of Count de Vergennes and Mon- 
sieur Rayneval during the period of the suspected 
mission of the latter, has, in his investigations, 
found every one of Mr. Jay's suspicions not 
merely unsustained, but contradicted, by the rec- 
ord. 2 How monitory this lesson of the delusions 

1 See his letter of the 1 7th of Monsieur Rayneval himself, be- 
November, 1782, in Diplomatic ing apprised in 1795, by Mr. Mon- 
Correspondence of the American roe, (then American minister at 
Revolution, vol. vin. pp. 163, 164. Paris,) of the suspicions and in- 

2 See the note of Mr. Sparks on sinuations of which the conduct of 
the letter of Mr. Jay, just referred the French government in the ne- 
to, Idem, 208-212. See also the gotiations for peace, and especially 
strong opinion of the integrity of his own mission to London in 1782, 
France, in her relations with the had been the subject, addressed a 
United States at this time, ex- letter of refutation to that srentle- 
pressed by the same judicious avh- man, which is distinguished by the 
ter, in his Life of Franklin, p. 495. apparent frankness and fulness of 



360 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

to which the highest intellect is exposed, when 
swayed by suspicion and prejudice; and how 
much more to be relied on are the conclusions 
of a calm and dispassionate reason in the ab- 
sence of all proofs, — for such was the situation 
of the American Congress when called to sit in 
judgment on these transactions, — than the rash 
deductions of an honest but excited mind in the 
full blaze of light, by which it is heated rather 
than illuminated, and seeing through the mirage 
of its prepossessions the objects and facts that 
pass under its immediate observation. 

Mr. Adams's former unpleasant relations with 
the French government but too well disposed 
him to enter, heart and hand, into all the sus- 
picions and denunciations of Mr. Jay. Dr. Frank- 
lin, while uniting with his two colleagues in the 
line of conduct which was ultimately pursued, 
did not share in the remotest degree the distrust 
by which they were actuated. In a letter of the 
23d of July, 1783, to the secretary of foreign 
affairs, Mr. Livingston, he makes the following 
explicit disclaimer : — 

"I will only add that, with respect to myself, 
neither the letter from Monsieur Marbois, handed 
us through the British negotiators, (a suspicious 
channel,) nor the conversations concerning the 

its statements. Mr. Monroe sent lations of France and the United 

a copy of the letter, shortly after States, which must continue to 

its date, to Mr. Madison, among challenge the attention of history 

whose files it has been preserved, by its bearing on the honor of both 

As still farther elucidating a most nations, we have inserted it in the 

interesting passage in the early re- Appendix, D. 



DR. FRANKLIN AND MR. LAURENS. ill I 

fishery, the boundaries, the royalists, &c., recom- 
mending moderation in our demands, are of 
weight sufficient in my mind to fix an opinion 
that this court wished to restrain us in obtaining; 
any degree of advantage we could prevail on our 
enemies to accord ; since these discourses are 
fairly resolvable by supposing a very natural ap- 
prehension that we, relying too much on the 
ability of France to continue the war in our 
favor, might insist on more advantages than the 
English would be willing to grant, and thereby 
lose the opportunity of making peace, so neces- 
sary to all our friends." ] 

Mr. Laurens has left, in the letter referred to 
in the extract before quoted from Mr. Madison's 
diary, an unequivocal testimony of what he 
thought of the relative claims of France and 
England, at that time, to the confidence of Amer- 
ica. In that letter, written little more than three 
weeks after the signature of the provisional arti- 
cles, he says : — 

"It is the incessant endeavour of the British 
government to detach us from our ally, and it 
is given out in London that they have out- 
manoeuvred the court of France. God forbid that 
any future act or future supineness, on the part 
of the United States of America, should give the 
smallest degree of countenance to so dishonor- 
able an insinuation. Every engine has been, 

1 See Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, 
vol. IV. pp. 138, 139. 

VOL. i. 31 



362 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

every degree of craft under the mask of return- 
ing affection will be, practised for creating jeal- 
ousies between the States and their good and 
great ally. Through their ally's assistance and 
their own virtuous perseverance, they attained to 
those preliminaries ; they will virtuously perse- 
vere until they shall have performed every tittle of 
their engagements with that ally, — against whom, 
1 in ust declare, for my own part, I see no cause 
for entertaining more particular jealousies than 
ought to be kept upon guard against every ne- 
gotiating court in the world, nor half so much as 
should, at this moment, be upon the watch against 
every motion arising from our new half-friends." 1 

We must here leave Mr. Madison again to 
give his appreciation of this diplomatic imbroglio. 
No one was less inclined to censoriousness than 
he ; but in the unreserved freedom of a private 
communication to a friend, he thus sententiously 
summed up the parts of the different actors, as 
they appeared to him. 

" In this business, Jay has taken the lead, and 
proceeded to a length of which you can form 
little idea. Adams has followed with cordiality. 
Franklin has been dragged into it. Laurens, in 
his separate letter, professes a violent suspicion 
of Great Britain, and good-will and confidence 
towards France." 2 

The secretary of foreign affairs, to whom the 

1 Diplomatic Correspondence of 1783, to Edmund Randolph in 
the American Revolution, vol. n. Madison Debates and Correspond- 
pp. 485, 48G. ence, vol. i. p. 518. 

2 Letter of the 18th of March, 



REPORT OF SECRETARY LIVINGSTON. 363 

despatches received from the American ministers 
had been referred, made a communication to 
Congress on the 18th of March, which, — after 
describing the painful dilemma to which Congress 
was reduced by the secret article relative to 
Florida, either of dishonoring themselves by be- 
coming a party to the concealment, or of wound- 
ing the feelings and destroying the influence of 
their ministers by disclosing the article to the 
French court, — recommended as the least disad- 
vantageous alternative, that he be authorized to 
communicate it to the French resident minister 
in such manner as may best tend to obviate un- 
favorable impressions. 1 

In the debates which this proposition gave rise 
to, Mr. Wolcott of Connecticut, Mr. Clark of New 
Jersey, Mr. Arthur Lee and Mr. Bland of Vir- 
ginia, Mr. Williamson of North Carolina, and Mr. 
Rutledge of South Carolina, appeared as the 
apologists of the ministers. In opposing the rec- 
ommendation of the secretary, while none of 
them absolutely justified the conduct of the min- 
isters, all of them evinced, more or less, (Mr. 
Lee, Mr. Bland, and Mr. Rutledge especially,) a 
participation in the jealousies and suspicions of 
France, under the influence of which Messrs. Jay 
and Adams had avowedly acted. 

Among those who sustained the recommenda- 
tion of the secretary, Colonel Mercer of Virginia 
expressed his disapprobation of the conduct of 

1 Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. XI 
pp. 309-315. 



364 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the ministers in terms of strong and unqualified 
censure. Colonel Alexander Hamilton, who had 
taken his seat in Congress only a few months 
before, as one of the delegates of New York, 
urged the propriety of proceeding with coolness 
and circumspection. While admitting the plausi- 
bility of some of the reasons assigned for imput- 
ing to France the policy of procrastinating the 
definite acknowledgment of our independence by 
Great Britain, the arguments in his judgment, 
though strong, were not conclusive. 

" Caution and vigilance," he said, "were justi- 
fied by the appearance, and that alone. But 
compare this policy with that of Great Britain ; 
survey the past cruelty and present duplicity of 
her councils ; behold her watching every occasion 
and trying every project for dissolving the hon- 
orable ties which bind the United States to their 
ally ; and then say on which side our resentments 
and jealousies ought to lie. With respect to the 
instruction submitting our ministers to the ad- 
vice of France, he had disapproved it uniformly 
since it had come to his knowledge ; but he had 
always judged it improper to repeal it. He dis- 
approved highly of the conduct of our ministers 
in not showing the preliminary articles to our 
ally before they signed them, and still more so, 
of- their agreeing to the separate article. This 
conduct gave an advantage to the enemy, which 
they would not fail to improve for the purpose 
of inspiring France with indignation and distrust 
of the United States." 



DEBATES IN CONGRESS. 365 

After some other observations, he concluded 
that " a middle course, with respect to our min- 
isters, was best; that they ought to be com- 
mended in general ; but that the communication 
of the separate article ought to take place. He 
observed that our ministers were divided as to 
the policy of France, but that they all were 
agreed as to the necessity of being on the watch 
against Great Britain. He apprehended that if 
the ministers were to be recalled or reprehended, 
they would be disgusted, and head and foment 
parties in this country. He observed particu- 
larly, with respect to Mr. Jay, that, although he 
was a man of profound sagacity and pure integ- 
rity, yet he was of a suspicious temper, and that 
this trait might explain the extraordinary jeal- 
ousies which he professed." 

Mr. Wilson of Pennsylvania, whose moderation 
and impartiality, added to his high character for 
abilities and experience, gave great weight to his 
opinions, also took part in the discussion. Allud- 
ing to the instruction of the loth of June, 1781, 
which submitted our ministers to the advice of 
France, he said : — 

"However objectionable this step may have 
been in Congress, the magnanimity of our ally 
in declining to obtrude his advice on our minis- 
ters ought to have been a fresh motive to their 
confidence and respect. Although they deserve 
commendation in general for their services, in 

this respect they do not. He was of opinion 

31 * 



366 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

that the spirit of the treaty with France forbade 
the signing of the preliminary articles without 
her consent, and that the separate article ought 
to be disclosed ; but as the merits of our minis- 
ters entitled them to the mildest and most deli- 
cate mode in which it could be done, he wished 
the communication to be left to themselves, as 
they would be the best judges of the explana- 
tion which ought to be made for the conceal- 
ment, and their feelings would be less wounded 
than if it were made without their intervention.'' 

The debate on the recommendation of the sec- 
retary of foreign affairs was closed by Mr. Mad- 
ison in the following comprehensive remarks, 
which, in consideration of the high interest and 
delicacy of the questions involved, as well as of 
the manly frankness with which they were treated, 
we insert here without the omission of any part. 

"He expressed his surprise at the attempts 
made to fix the blame of all our embarrassments 
on the instruction of June 15, 1781, when it ap- 
peared that no use had been made of the power 
given by it to the court of France ; that our 
ministers had construed it in such a way as to 
leave them at full liberty ; and that no one in 
Congress pretended to blame them on that ac- 
count. For himself, he was persuaded their con- 
struction was just ; the advice of France having 
been made a guide to them only in cases where 
the question respected the concessions of the 
United States to Great Britain necessary and 



MR. MADISON'S SPEECH. 3G7 

proper for obtaining peace and an acknowledg- 
ment of independence, not where it respected 
concessions to other powers and for other pur- 
poses. He reminded Congress of the change 
which had taken place in onr affairs since that 
instruct ion was passed, and remarked the proba- 
bility that many who were now, perhaps, the 
loudest in disclaiming, would, under the circum- 
stances of that period, have been the foremost 
to adopt it. 1 He admitted that the change of 
circumstances had rendered it inapplicable ; but 
thought an express repeal of it might, at this 
crisis at least, have a bad effect. 

" The instructions," he observed, " for disregard- 
ing which our ministers had been blamed, and 
which, if obeyed, would have prevented the di- 
lemma now felt, were those which required them 
to act ' in concert and in confidence with our 
ally ' ; and these instructions," he said, " had been 
repeatedly confirmed in every stage of the Rev- 
olution, by unanimous votes of Congress ; several 
of the gentlemen present, 2 who now justified our 
ministers, having concurred in them ; and one of 
them 3 having penned two of the acts, in one of 

1 " The committee who report- of the declaration made in Sep- 
ed the instruction were Mr. Car- tember last, and the instructions 
roll, Mr. Jones, Mr. Witherspoon, about the same time. This was 
Mr. Sullivan, and Mr. Matthews, considerably altered, but not in 
Mr. Witherspoon was particularly that respect." [The acts here re- 
prominent throughout." ferred to are, doubtless, those of 

2 " Messrs. Bland, Lee, and Rut- the 3d and 4th of October, 1782, 
ledge/' which see in Secret Journals of 

3 " Mr. Rutledge, who framed Congress, vol. in. pp. 241 and 248. 
m the committee the first draught See also supra, p. 271.] 



368 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

which Congress went farther than they had done 
in any preceding act, by declaring that they 
would not make peace until the interests of our 
allies and friends, as well as of the United States, 
should be provided for. 

"As to the propriety of communicating to our 
ally the separate article, he thought it resulted 
clearly from considerations both of national honor 
and national security. He said that Congress, 
having repeatedly assured their ally that they 
would take no step in a negotiation but in con- 
cert and in confidence with him, and having 
even published to the world solemn declarations 
to the same effect, would, if they abetted this 
concealment of their ministers, be considered by 
all nations as devoid of all constancy and good 
faith, unless a breach of these assurances and 
declarations could be justified by an absolute ne- 
cessity, or some perfidy on the part of France. 
It was manifest no such necessity could be 
pleaded. 

"As to perfidy on the part of France, nothing 
but suspicious and equivocal circumstances had 
been quoted in evidence of it, and even in these 
it appeared that our ministers were divided ; 
that the embarrassment in which France was 
placed by the interfering claims of Spain with 
the United States must have been foreseen by 
our ministers, and that the impartial public would 
expect that, instead of cooperating with Great 
Britain in taking advantage of this embarrass- 



MR. MADISON'S SPEECH. 369 

ment, they ought to have made every allowance 
and given every facility to it, consistent with a 
regard to the rights of their country; that ad- 
mitting every fact alleged by our ministers to 
be true, it could, by no means, be inferred that 
the opposition made by France to our claims 
was the effect of any hostile or ambitious de- 
signs against them, or any other design than 
that of reconciling them with those of Spain. 

"The hostile aspect which the separate article, 
as well as the concealment of it, bore to Spain, 
would be regarded by the impartial world as a 
dishonorable alliance with our enemies against 
the interests of our friends ; that notwithstand- 
ing the disappointments and even indignities 
which the United States had received from Spain, 
it could neither be denied nor concealed that 
the former had derived many substantial advan- 
tages from her taking part in the war, and had 
even obtained some pecuniary aids; that the 
United States had made professions correspond- 
ing with those obligations ; that they had testified 
the important light in which they considered the 
support resulting to their cause from the arms 
of Spain, by the importunity with which they had 
courted her alliance, by the concessions with 
which they had offered to purchase it, and by 
the anxiety which they expressed at every ap- 
pearance of her separate negotiations for a peace 
with the common enemy. 

"That our national safety would be endan- 



370 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

gered by Congress making themselves a party 
to the concealment of the separate article, he 
thought could be questioned by no one. No 
definitive treaty of peace, he observed, had as 
yet taken place ; the important articles between 
some of the belligerent parties had not even 
been adjusted ; our insidious enemy was evidently 
laboring to sow dissensions among them ; the in- 
caution of our ministers had but too much facil- 
itated them between the United States and 
France ; a renewal of war, therefore, in some 
form or other, was still to be apprehended ; and 
what would be our situation if France and Spain 
had no confidence in us ; and what confidence 
could they have, if we did not disclaim the policy 
which had been followed by our ministers. 

" He took notice of the intimation given by 
the British minister to Mr. Adams, of an intended 
expedition from New York against West Florida 
as a proof of the illicit confidence into which 
our ministers had been drawn, and urged the in- 
dispensable duty of Congress to communicate it 
to those concerned in it. He hoped that if a 
committee should be appointed — for which, how- 
ever, he saw no necessity — this would be in- 
cluded in their report, and that their report 
would be made with as little delay as possible." 

The letter of the secretary of foreign affairs, 
together with the despatches of the American 
commissioners, and the several propositions which 
had been made in the course of the debate, was 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 371 

finally referred to a committee consisting of Mr. 
Wilson of Pennsylvania, Mr. Gorliam of Massa- 
chusetts, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina, Mr. Clark 
of New Jersey, and Mr. Hamilton of New York. 
On the 2 2d of March, the committee made 
their report, recommending that the ministers be 
thanked for their zeal in negotiating the prelim- 
inary articles, that they be instructed to com- 
municate the separate article to the court of 
France in such way as would best get over the 
concealment, and that they be informed by the 
secretary of foreign affairs of the wish of Con- 
gress that they had communicated the preliminary 
articles to the court of France before those arti- 
cles had been executed. 1 

The report of the committee led to a renewal 
of the discussion on the conduct of the ministers 
in withholding a knowledge of their negotiations 
from the French government ; and efforts were 
made, by motions of recommitment and postr 
ponement, to prevent any action of Congress on 
the subject. The receipt of intelligence, on the 
following day, that the preliminaries of a general 
peace among all the belligerents had been signed 
at Paris on the 20th of January preceding, fa- 
vored the designs of those who were desirous 
of preventing any expression of opinion by Con- 
gress with regard to the conduct of the Ameri- 
can negotiators ; and so it happened in the end 
that there was no positive action of Congress on 
the report of the committee. 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. p. 405. 



372 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

But on the 25th of March a letter was ad- 
dressed by the secretary of foreign affairs to the 
commissioners, which may be fairly presumed to 
embody the deliberate sentiments of a majority 
of Congress on the several questions which had 
arisen out of the negotiation, — it being in close 
conformity to the report of the committee. He 
informs them that the preliminary articles had 
met with the warmest approbation of Congress, 
and been generally seen by the people in the 
most favorable point of view ; that the stipula- 
tions with regard to independence, to boundaries, 
and the fisheries, were entirely satisfactory; so 
likewise was the provision for the recovery of 
British debts; and although the article respect- 
ing the confiscated estates of the loyalists was 
not likely to receive the sanction of the separate 
States, on whose free will its execution was ex- 
pressly made to depend, yet, in agreeing to it, 
under the circumstances of the case and with the 
declaration by which they had accompanied it, 
there was no fault on their part, but the folly 
was that of the British commissioners, as well in 
asking as in accepting such a stipulation. 

He then proceeds: "But, gentlemen, though 
the issue of your treaty has been successful, 
though I am satisfied that we are much indebted 
to your firmness and perseverance, to your accu- 
rate knowledge of our situation and of our wants, 
for this success, yet I feel no little pain at the 
distrust manifested in the management of it, 



SECRETARY'S LETTER TO MINISTERS. 373 

particularly in signing the treaty without com- 
municating it to the court of Versailles till after 
the signature, and in concealing the separate 
article from it, even when signed. I have ex- 
amined with the most minute attention all the 
reasons assigned in your several letters to justify 
these suspicions. I confess they do not strike 
me so forcibly as they appear to have clone you; 
and it gives me pain that the character for 
candor and fidelity to its engagements, which 
should always characterize a great people, should 
have been impeached thereby. The concealment 
was, in my opinion, absolutely unnecessary ; for 
had the court of France disapproved the terms 
you had made, — after they had been agreed 
upon, they could, not have acted so absurdly as 
to counteract you at that late day, and thereby 
put themselves in the power of an enemy who 
would certainly betray them, and perhaps justify 
you in making terms for yourselves." x 

Such was the language of truth and candor 
uttered hy one who was in a position to form 
the most competent as well as impartial judg- 
ment. The sober voice of a dispassionate pos- 
terity ratifies and confirms it. The sentiment of 
distrust indulged by a portion of the American 
negotiators was unjust alike to France and to 
America. 2 

1 See Diplomatic Correspond- sometimes committed in the dis- 
ence of the American Revolution, cussions of this question by citing, 
vcl. x. pp. 129-133. from the interested revelations af- 

2 A singular anachronism is terwards made by order of the 
vol. I. 32 



374 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

We look in vain through the records of his- 
tory for the example of an international compact 
so manly and generous in its terms, so loyal and 
steadfast in its fulfilment, so fruitful and glorious 
in its consequences, as the alliance of 1778 be- 
tween the ancient monarchy of the Franks and 
the infant republic of the Anglo-Saxon colonists of 
America, If the policy of weakening a powerful 
and haughty rival entered into the motives of 
France, as naturally it would do, where shall we 
find the instance of such important protection 
and support given to a State just struggling into 
existence, without the slightest advantage being 
taken, in the conditions of the alliance, of the 
necessities and dependence of the feebler party? 

We shall certainly not find it in the case of 
England, who, for the support she gave to the 
United Provinces in their noble struggle for in- 
dependence against the bloody and ferocious des- 
potism of Spain, stipulated that all her expenses 
should be repaid at the conclusion of the war, 
and in the mean time required several of the 

French Convention, certain dec- brance of the conduct of our min- 

larations of a minister of Louis isters in the negotiations for peace, 

XVI., Count Montmorin, unfavor- which, there is reason to believe, 

able to the consolidation and de- had made so deep an impression 

velopment of the power of the even upon the steady mind of 

United States. These declarations, Count de Vergennes as to have 

whatever may have been their true modified materially, after the close 

import, it must be recollected, were of the war, his long-cherished po- 

several years posterior to the time litical system with regard to the 

of which we are now speaking, relations of France and America. 

They were probably produced, in See Histoire de la Louisiane, par 

no small degree, by the remem- M. Marbois, p. 164. 



SERVICES AND CONDUCT OF FRANCE. 375 

towns and fortresses of Holland to be placed in 
her hands as security for the payment, France, 
on the contrary, in the war for American inde- 
pendence, — which she boldly guaranteed from 
the outset, along with the territorial integrity of 
the States, — not only bore the whole charge of 
her military and naval armaments, immense as 
they were, but in several instances made gratu- 
itous advances for the support of the army of 
her ally. 

Of the value and vital importance of the coop- 
eration of France in the achievement of Amer- 
ican independence, it would be unmanly to at- 
tempt to disguise, either from ourselves or the 
world, the multiplied proofs with which the au- 
thentic records of the struggle abound. Those 
records all conspire to show there were two 
things which were the indispensable conditions 
of success: money to supply the exhaustion of 
the national finances, and a naval ascendency to 
insure the command of the water. Both of these 
resources were, at the critical moment, derived 
from the friendship and policy of France. 

Nor, in a review of the interesting relations 
of the two countries at so eventful an epoch in 
the history of both, ought we to confine our- 
selves to the ordinary calculations of an official 
state policy. However great the influence which 
such considerations doubtless had in ultimately 
determining the course of the French government, 
it is an unquestionable fact that in the French 



376 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



nation itself there Avas an enthusiastic and gener- 
ous sympathy with America, — bravely contend- 
ing against oppression, — which reacted upon and 
infused itself into the cabinet and the court. 

With these recollections present to the mind, 
one cannot but subscribe to the sentiment ex- 
pressed at the close of the war, by the gallant 
Lafayette, who bore a filial relation to both 
countries. " As a Frenchman," he said, " whose 
heart beats with patriotism, I am proud of the 
part which France has acted, and of the alliance 
she made. As an American, I freely acknowl- 
edge the obligation due to her ; and in that I 
believe consists true dignity 



" i 



1 Comrae un Francois, dont le ces envoyes d'un peuple en in- 

coeur brule de patriotisme, je me surrection contre son monarque." 

rejouis du role que la France a Their simplicity of dress, and un- 

joue, et de l'alliance qu'elle a fait, affected but dignified demeanour, 

Connne Americain, je reconnais contrasted with the magnificence 

^obligation, et je crois qu'en cela and artificial forms of Versailles 

consiste la vraie dignite." Lett, to and Paris, gave them, he says, " cet 

W. Carmichael in Memoires de air antique qui semblait transporter 

Lafayette, vol. n. pp. 51, 52. tout-a-coup dans nos inurs, au mi- 

Among the French contempo- lieu de la civilisation amollie et 

rary writers, witnesses of the en- servile du dix-huitieme siecle, 

thusiasm of their countrymen in- quelques sages contemporains de 

spired by the American Revolu- Platon, ou des republicains du 

tion, Count de Segur is perhaps temps de Caton et de Fabius " ; 

the one who has furnished us the and even before their official rec- 

most striking details. He has given ognition by the government, " on 

particularly a lively and graphic voyait chaque jour accourir dans 

picture of the interest and admira- leurs maisons, avec empressement, 

tion which everywhere followed les hommes les plus distingues de 

Franklin and his colleagues on la capitale et de la cour, ainsi que 

their arrival in France. " II serait tous les philosophes, les savans et 

difficile," he says, " d'exprimer avec les litterateurs les plus celebres." 

quel empressement, avec quelle fa- Memoires de Segur, vol. I. pp. 108- 

veur furent accueillis en France, 110. 
au sein d'une vieille monarchie. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

News received of the Signing at Paris of Preliminaries of a general 
Peace — Cessation of Hostilities proclaimed by Congress — Ques- 
tion raised as to Necessity of a formal Ratification of the Provis- 
ional Articles between Great Britain and the United States — Also 
as to the Propriety of an immediate Release of Prisoners — Report 
of Committee on these Questions by Mr. Madison, Colonel Hamil- 
ton dissenting — Improvident Decision of Congress — Discontents 
of the Army — Petition and Address of Officers to Congress — 
Interview between Deputies of the Army and Grand Committee of 
Congress — Report of Grand Committee — Difference of Opinion 
on Subject of Half-Pay and Commutation — Mr. Madison vindi- 
cates the Claims of the Army — Its Discontents increased by the 
Delays of Congress — Newburgh Address — Measures adopted by 
Washington — His Address to the Meeting of Officers — Ability 
and Magnanimity of his Conduct — Mr. Madison's Account of the 
Impression produced by it in Congress — Interference of civil 
Creditors to foment Discontents of the Army sternly reproved by 
Washington — Correspondence between Colonel Hamilton and 
Washington on the Subject — Conduct of Mr. Morris, Superin- 
tendent of Finance, gives Rise to Dissatisfaction — Sentiments of 
Mr. Madison. 

On the receipt of the intelligence that the pre- 
liminaries of a general peace had been signed be- 
tween all the belligerents at Paris, — an event 

32* 



378 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

on which the effect of the provisional articles 
between the United States and Great Britain 
was generally understood to be suspended, — 
great impatience was manifested by Congress to 
realize the pacific results of the arrangement. 
On the 24th of March, 1783, the day after the 
arrival of the intelligence, a resolution was passed, 
directing the agent of the marine to recall all 
armed vessels cruising under commissions from 
the United States. A letter was also addressed 
by the secretary of foreign affairs to Sir Guy Carle- 
ton and Admiral Digby, communicating to them, 
by authority of Congress, a copy of this resolu- 
tion, and inviting corresponding measures on their 
part for arresting further hostilities at sea as well 
as on land. 1 

Congress was soon made sensible of the pre- 
cipitation with which they had moved in this 
matter by letters from the British commanders, 
declining to act upon the communication made 
to them, until they had received official accounts 
and orders from home. On the 10th of April, 
other letters of General Carleton and Admiral 
Digby were laid before Congress, announcing the 
receipt by them of instructions from their own 
government for a cessation of arms, both by sea 
and land. 2 At the same time, a communication 
came from Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, inclos- 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. of foreign affairs and the British 
pp. 427, 428. commanders, see Diplomatic Cor- 

2 For all the letters above re- respondence of the American Re v- 
ferred to between the secretary olution, vol. n. pp. 319-329. 



CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 379 

ina* a declaration which had been entered into 
between them and the British minister at Paris, 
for applying to the United States the same epochs 
for the suspension of hostilities that had been 
agreed upon between Great Britain and France. 1 
Congress, on the following day, proclaimed in 
due form a cessation of hostilities, to take effect 
in conformity to that declaration. 

After these proceedings, other embarrassing 
questions arose, as to the true construction of 
the provisional articles with regard to the time 
for a mutual release of prisoners of war, and 
also as to the necessity and propriety of a formal 
ratification of those articles by Congress. These 
questions were referred to a committee consist- 
ing of Mr. Madison, Mr. Peters of Pennsylvania, 
and Colonel Hamilton. Mr. Madison and Mr. 
Peters, forming a majority of the committee, were 
of opinion that as there w T as no express provision 
in the articles for their ratification, and as they 
constituted merely a basis upon which a future 
definitive treaty was to be concluded, which 
treaty, when concluded, would require to be rat- 
ified, there was neither propriety nor necessity 
for a ratification of the provisional articles. Such 
a ratification, they thought also, was positively 
objectionable, as it would be considered as oblig- 
ing Congress to an immediate fulfilment of all 
the stipulations contained in the articles, before 

1 See Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. 
X. pp. 121, 122. Also Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 437, 438. 



380 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

there was any evidence that a corresponding 
obligation would be assumed by the other party. 

A release of the prisoners of war held by the 
United States would, under these circumstances, 
they thought, be premature and inexpedient, and 
surrender an important security for the fulfilment 
of the stipulations entered into on the part of 
Great Britain. 

These wise conclusions were presented to Con- 
gress in a lucid report drawn by Mr. Madison, 1 but 
were overruled by the prevailing impatience of 
the body to consummate, at once and at all 
hazards, the arrangements entered into for the 
return of peace. On the 15th of April, 1783, 
resolutions were passed in favor of a formal rat- 
ification of the provisional articles, and directing 
the agent of marine to cause the naval prison- 
ers to be set at liberty, and the secretary of war, 
in conjunction with the commander-in-chief, to 
take measures for setting at liberty all land pris- 
oners. 2 

Colonel Hamilton, who had dissented from the 
report of the committee, upon farther reflection 
changed his opinion as to the construction of the 
provisional articles respecting the release of pris- 
oners of war, and moved on the following day 
a modification of the resolution which had been 
adopted on that subject, by varying the direction 

1 See the report, and discussion 2 See Journals of Congress, vol. 
upon it, in Madison Debates, vol. i. IV. pp. 187, 188, and Secret Jour- 
pp. 440-443. nals, vol. in. pp. 327-338. 



RELEASE OF PRISONERS. 



381 



to the commander-in-chief from positive and un- 
conditional measures for setting the prisoners at 
liberty to "preparatory arrangements relative to 
the 7th article of the treaty." x The motion re- 
ceived the votes of a majority of the States in 
Congress, but not the requisite number, under 
the articles of confederation, to give it effect. 
The consequences of the improvident action of 
Congress, which was deprecated at the time by 
the good sense and sagacity of Washington, 2 were 
soon shown in delays and evasions in the ex- 
ecution of the articles on the side of Great Brit- 
ain ; and months yet elapsed, as we shall see, 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. I. we had no option in the first, Con* 
p. 444, and Journals of Congress, gress wishing to be eased of* the 

expense as soon as possible, I act- 
ed solely on that ground. At the 
same time, I scruple not to confess 
to you that, if this measure was not 
dictated by necessity, it is, in my 
opinion, an impolitic one, as we 
place ourselves in the power of the 
British before the treaty is defini- 



vol. iv. p. 188. 

2 In a letter to Colonel Hamil- 
ton, dated the 22d of April, 1783, 
he says : — 

" I did not receive your let- 
ter of 15th instant until after my 
return from Ringwood, where I 
had a meeting with the secretary 
of war, for the purpose of making tive." See letter in Ham. Hist, 
arrangements for the release of our Am. Rep. vol. n. p. 510. The re- 
prisoners, agreeably to the resolve suit was, that the British, having 
of Congress of the fifteenth instant, obtained an immediate and uncon- 
Finding a diversity of opinion re- ditional release of all their prison- 
spectingthe treaty, and the line of ers in the hands of the Americans, 
conduct we ought to observe with became totally careless in the exe- 
the prisoners, I requested, in pre- cution of other stipulations on their 
cise terms, to know from General part, and violated one of them 
Lincoln, (before I entered on the particularly in a manner so open 
business,) whether we were to ex- as to lead to a very pointed and 
ercise our own judgment as to the vigorous protest from Gen. Wash- 
time, as well as mode, of releasing ington to Sir Guy Carleton. See 
them, or were to be confined to Sparks's Washington, vol. vm 
the latter. Being informed that pp. 431, 432. 



382 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

before the uncertainties of an armistice weie ter- 
minated by a definitive treaty of peace. 

The transition from war to peace, in civil con- 
vulsions especially, is often attended with as 
many dangers to the public liberty and safety 
as that from peace to war. In the case of the 
United States, it was rendered peculiarly difficult 
and critical by the distresses and unrequited suf- 
ferings of the army. We have seen the extrem- 
ities of destitution and almost of famine to which, 
on more than one occasion, they were reduced 
by the want of adequate means at the disposal 
of Congress for their support, They had often 
been compelled to accept their pay in depreciat- 
ed paper-money, which the necessities of their fam- 
ilies, or their own, obliged them to part with at any 
sacrifice, however ruinous ; and large arrearages 
were now due to them, for which they had re- 
ceived no satisfaction whatever, real or nominal. 

The half-pay for life, promised to the officers by a 
solemn resolution of Congress, seemed likely to 
prove illusory, from the want of any permanent 
and adequate national fund to secure its pay- 
ment ; and the grant itself was becoming odious 
to many, as constituting its recipients, in their 
estimation, a sort of privileged class. There had 
always been in Congress a party morbidly jeal- 
ous of the army, not even excepting from their 
distrust the illustrious commander-in-chief; and 
this party had its ramifications in some of the 
most powerful and influential of the States. 



MEMORIAL OF ARMY TO CONGRESS. 383 

The suspension of all active military opera- 
tions, since the first news of the opening of ne- 
gotiations for peace at Paris, had given the army 
leisure to reflect upon its situation, and produced 
a corresponding uneasiness as to the destitute 
and impoverished condition in which it might be 
left at the period of its disbandment. 

Under these circumstances, a meeting was held 
by the officers in their cantonments at Newburgh, 
in December, 1782, and an "address and peti- 
tion," on behalf of the soldiers and themselves, 
was agreed upon and signed. This paper, distin- 
guished alike by its deferential and its dignified 
tone, exhibited the erect spirit of freemen, con- 
scious both of their sufferings and their deserts. 
It summed up, in the following impressive terms, 
the grounds and motives of their appeal : — 

"At this period of the war, it is with peculiar 
pain we find ourselves constrained to address 
your august body on matters of a pecuniary na- 
ture. We have struggled with our difficulties 
year after year, under the hopes that each would 
be the last ; but we have been disappointed. We 
find our embarrassments thicken so fast, and have 
become so complex, that many of us are unable 
to go further. In this exigence, we apply to 
Congress for relief as our head and sovereign. 

" To prove that our hardships are exceedingly 
disproportionate to those of finy other citizens 
of America, let a recurrence r*a LaU to the pay- 
master's accounts for the last Vur years. If to 



384 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

this it should be objected that the respective 
States have made settlements and given securi- 
ties for the pay due for part of that time, let 
the present value of those nominal obligations 
be ascertained by the moneyed men, and they 
will be found little indeed ; and yet, trifling as 
they are, many have been under the sad neces- 
sity of parting with them, to prevent their fam- 
ilies from actually starving. We complain that 
shadows have been offered to us, while the sub- 
stance has been gleaned by others. Our situa- 
tion compels us to search for the cause of our 
extreme poverty. The citizens murmur at the 
greatness of their taxes, and are astonished that 
no part reaches the army. The numerous de- 
mands which are between the first collectors and 
the soldiers swallow up the whole. 

" Our distresses are now brought to a point. 
We have borne all that men can bear, — our 
property is expended, our private resources are 
at an end, and our friends are wearied and dis- 
gusted with our incessant applications. We there- 
fore most seriously and earnestly beg that a 
supply of money may be forwarded to the army 
as soon as possible. The uneasiness of the sol- 
diers for the want of pay is great and danger- 
ous; any further experiment upon their patience 
may have fatal effects." 

The memorialists, after mentioning the large 
arrearages due to the army for deficiencies in 
clothing and provisions, as well as for pay, pro- 
ceed : — 



MEMORIAL OF ARMY TO CONGRESS. 385 

"Whenever there has been a real want of 
means, any defect in system, or neglect in exe- 
cution in the departments of the army, we have 
invariably been the sufferers, by hunger and na- 
kedness and by languishing in a hospital. We 
beg leave to urge an immediate adjustment of 
all dues ; that as great a part as possible be 
paid, and the remainder put on such a footing 
as will restore cheerfulness to the army, revive 
confidence in the justice and generosity of its 
constituents, and contribute to the very desirable 
effect of reestablishing public credit." 

With regard to the half-pay for life promised 
by Congress, they say : " We see with chagrin 
the odious point of view in which the citizens 
of too many of the States endeavour to place 
the men entitled to it. We hope, for the honor 
of human nature, that there are none so hard- 
ened in the sin of ingratitude as to deny the 
justice of the reward. We have reason to be- 
lieve that the objection generally is against the 
mode of the reward. To prevent, therefore, any 
altercations and distinctions which may tend to 
injure that harmony which we ardently desire 
may reign throughout the community, we are 
willing to commute the half-pay pledged for full 
pay for a certain number of years, or for a sum 
in gross, as shall be agreed to by the committee 
sent with this address." 

They then conclude their appeal in these words : 

"To the representation now made, the army 

VOL. I. 33 



386 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

have not a doubt that Congress will pay all that 
attention which the serious nature of it requires. 
It would be criminal in the officers to conceal 
the general dissatisfaction which prevails, and is 
gaining ground in the army, from the pressure 
of evils and injuries which, in the course of seven 
long years, have made their condition in many 
instances wretched. They therefore entreat that 
Congress, to convince the army and the world 
that the independence of America shall not be 
placed on the ruin of any particular class of her 
citizens, will point out a mode for immediate 
redress." 1 

General McDougall, Colonel Ogden, and Colo- 
nel Brooks were appointed by the meeting of 
officers a committee to take charge of their me- 
morial, to present it to Congress, and to support 
it by their personal representations and influence. 
The memorial was presented on the 6th of Jan- 
uary, 1783; and as a mark of the consideration 
due to both the source and the subject of it, it 
was referred to a grand committee, consisting . of 
one member for each State. The grand commit- 
tee appointed an early day for giving audience 
to the deputies of the army ; when they severally 
entered into explanations and details with regard 
to the feelings and grievances of their constitu- 
ents, which could not but add to the sense 
already felt of the extreme gravity of the con- 

1 See the memorial at length in Journals of Congress, vol. iv. pp. 
206-208. 



REPORT OF GRAND COMMITTEE. 387 

juncture. 1 A sub-committee of three members 
was appointed to consider and report to the 
grand committee the measures which it would 
be proper to recommend to Congress for their 
adoption. 

Of this sub-committee, as well as of the grand 
committee, Mr. Madison was a member. The re- 
port made was taken up for consideration in 
Congress on the 24th of January ; and on that 
and the following day resolutions were adopted, 
in pursuance of the recommendation of the com- 
mittee, for making an immediate advance of 
one month's pay to the army, and declaring, in 
reference to the arrearages which should be 
found due on a settlement of accounts, that the 
troops, in common with the other creditors of 
the United States, have an undoubted right to 
expect that adequate and substantial funds will 
be obtained by Congress from the respective 
States, as a security for their ultimate payment. 
With regard to half-pay, the committee recom- 
mended that it be left to the option of the offi- 
cers to preserve their claim to half-pay for life, 
as provided by previous resolutions of Congress, 
or to accejDt, in lieu of it, full pay for a de- 
terminate number of years; the amount so as- 
certained to be paid one year after the con- 
clusion of the war in money, or placed upon 
good funded security, bearing six per cent, inter- 
est, In acting upon this recommendation of the 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 256-259. 



388 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

committee, (a difference of opinion occurring as 
to what number of years' full pay is the fair 
equivalent of half-pay for life,) the subject was 
referred to a special committee, upon whose re- 
port it was proposed, on the 4th of February, 
to fix the number of years' full pay at five and 
a half, — that rate of commutation being deduced 
from Dr. Price's Table of Annuities. This prop- 
osition was negatived ; as were others indicating, 
severally, different rates of commutation. 

It appeared that the Eastern States and New 
Jersey were hostile, in principle, to the promise 
which had been made of half-pay for life ; and 
the validity of the act itself was even questioned, 
as, having passed before the completion of the 
articles of confederation, it was carried by a vote 
of less than seven States. This objection was 
warmly replied to by Mr. Madison, who said, — 

" The act was valid, because it was decided 
according to the rule then in force ; and that, as 
the officers had served under it, justice corrobo- 
rated it ; and he was astonished to hear those 
principles controverted. He was also astonished 
to hear objections against a commutation come 
from States, in compliance with whose objections 
against half-pay itself this expedient had been 
substituted." l 

In this discordance of opinions, it was thought 
best to let the subject lie over for farther con- 
sideration. 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. p. 320. 



PRIVATE CONSULTATIONS IN CONGRESS. 389 

111 the mean time, the discontents of the army 
were daily heightened by the opposition and de- 
lays which a claim, so indisputably just in their 
estimation, met with in Congress. Mr. Madison 
records a conversation of great interest and im- 
portance which took place among half a dozen 
members of Congress, assembled at the house of 
one of them, on the 20th of February, 1783, to 
exchange views on some matters of critical mo- 
ment then depending before Congress, and espe- 
cially the situation of the army. 

" Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Peters," he says, u who 
[having been themselves officers] had the best 
knowledge of the temper, transactions, and views 
of the army, informed the company that it was 
certain that the army had secretly determined 
not to lay down their arms until due provision 
and a satisfactory prospect should be afforded on 
the subject of their pay ; that there was reason 
to expect a public declaration to this effect would 
soon be made ; that plans had been agitated, if 
not formed, for subsisting themselves after such 
declaration ; that, as a proof of their earnestness 
on this subject, the commander was already be- 
come extremely unpopular among almost all 
ranks, from his known dislike to every unlawful 
proceeding; that this unpopularity was daily in- 
creasing, and industriously promoted by many 
leading characters ; that his choice of unfit and 
indiscreet persons into his family was the pre- 
text, and with some the motive, but the substan- 

33* 



390 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

tial one a desire to displace him from the respect 
and confidence of the army, in order to substi- 
tute General as the conductor of their 

efforts to obtain justice." * 

On the 25th of February, the report of the 
committee on the subject of half-pay for life and 
the proposed commutation for it was taken up ; 
when a motion was made by Mr. Gilman of New 
Hampshire, seconded by Mr. Con diet of New Jer- 
sey, to refer the officers of the army to their 
respective States for a settlement of their claims 
under the provision of Congress. The proposi- 
tion, though favored by the same States which 
had heretofore shown their hostility to the half-pay 
establishment, was negatived by a majority of 
States. On the following day, the rate of the 
proposed commutation was, on the question for 
filling the blank in the report, fixed at five years' 
full pay. 2 The consideration of the subject was 
resumed on the 28th of February; when, after 
another abortive effort to refer the several lines 
of the army to their respective States for the 
adjustment of the claim to half-pay, the question 
was finally put on agreeing to the report in 
favor of a commutation of five years' full pay. 
Seven States only voted in the affirmative ; and 
as the articles of confederation required the as- 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. I. pp. 358, 359, and Journals of Con- 
pp. 350, 351. gress, vol. iv. pp. 166, 167, and 

2 See Madison Debates, vol. i. 168. 



SEDITIOUS APPEAL TO ARMY. 391 

sent of nine, in all cases of pecuniary charge or 
appropriation, the question was lost. 1 

On the receipt of a communication from its 
deputies in Philadelphia, giving an account of 
these proceedings, the dissatisfaction of the army 
rose to a pitch of great excitement ; and there 
were not wanting those who stood ready and 
eager to fan the flame. On the 10th of March, 
an anonymous call was circulated for a general 
meeting of the officers the following day, " to 
consider the late letter from our representatives 
in Philadelphia, and what measures, if any, should 
be adopted to obtain that redress of grievances, 
which they seem to have solicited in vain." 

At the same time, an anonymous address was 
issued to the officers of the army, professing to 
come from a "fellow-soldier," who had shared 
their sufferings and was involved in a common 
fortune with them ; presenting a highly wrought 
and glowing picture of their wrongs, and of the 
neglect and injustice with which they had been 
treated ; calling upon them to carry their appeal 
from the justice to the fears of the government, 
and to suspect the man who would advise to 
more moderation and longer forbearance ; — in 
the event of peace, not to separate from their 
arms until justice was done them ; and should 
war continue, it concluded, " courting the auspices 
and inviting the direction of your illustrious 

1 Madison Debates, vol. I. pp. 365, 366, and 368, 369, and Journals, 
vol. iv. pp. 168, 169. 



392 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

leader, you will retire to some unsettled country, 
smile in your turn, and 'mock when their fear 
cometh on.' " 

There was unfortunately too much of founda- 
tion for many of the representations of fact con- 
tained in this address ; and far too keen a sense 
of suffering and neglect in the army to render 
it either prudent or just for the commander-in- 
chief to oppose himself to any regular and proper 
method of setting forth their complaints. While, 
therefore, in general orders issued the following 
day, he expressed his disapprobation of the call 
which had been made as irregular and disor- 
derly, he himself convened a general meeting of 
the officers to take place a few days later, to 
receive the report of their deputies to Congress, 
to deliberate maturely on the measures " most 
rational and best calculated to attain the just 
and important object in view," and to report, 
through the senior officer in rank, (who was re- 
quested to preside on the occasion,) the result 
of their deliberations to him. 

The meeting took place on the 15th of March. 
General Gates, as the senior officer in rank, pre- 
sided. The commander-in-chief, who had not 
failed to avail himself of the precious interval 
of four days, between the date of his general 
orders and the assemblage of the officers, to 
breathe into them individually, as far as possible, 
his own patriotic and magnanimous spirit, attend- 
ed the meeting ; and upon its opening, begged 
permission to address it. 



WASHINGTON'S SPEECH TO OFFICERS. 393 

After animadverting with just severity upon 
the arrogant and reckless tone of the anonymous 
address, which had denounced as an object of 
suspicion the man who should counsel moderation 
and forbearance, he spoke of his long and inti- 
mate and endearing relations to the army. 

" If my conduct heretofore," he said, " has not 
evinced to you that I have been a faithful friend 
to the army, my declaration of it at this time 
would be equally unavailing and improper. But 
as I was among the first who embarked in the 
cause of our common country ; as I have never 
left your side one moment, but when called 
from you on public business ; as I have been 
the constant companion and witness of your dis- 
tresses, and not among the last to feel and ac- 
knowledge your merits ; as I have ever consid- 
ered my own military reputation as inseparably 
connected with that of the army ; as my heart 
has ever expanded with joy wdien I have heard 
its praises, and my indignation has arisen when 
the mouth of detraction has been opened against 
it, it can scarcely be supposed, at this last stage 
of the war, that I can be indifferent to its inter- 
ests." 

He then proceeded to demand with earnest- 
ness, " But how are those interests to be pro- 
moted ? The way is plain, says the anonymous 
addresser. 'If war continues, remove into the 
unsettled country ; there establish yourselves, and 
leave an ungrateful country to defend itself.' 



394 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

But whom are they to defend? our wives, our 
children, our farms and other property, which we 
leave behind us ? Or, in this state of hostile 
separation, are we to take the first two, (the 
latter cannot be removed,) to perish in a wilder- 
ness with hunger, cold and nakedness? 

" ' If peace takes place, never sheathe your 
swords,' says he, i until you have obtained full 
and ample justice.'" This dreadful alternative of 
either deserting our country in the extremest 
hour of her distress, or of turning our arms 
against her, (which is the apparent object, un- 
less Congress can be compelled into instant com- 
pliance,) has something so shocking in it that 
humanity revolts at the idea. My God ! what 
can this writer have in view by recommending 
such measures ? Can he be a friend to the army ? 
Can he be a friend to this country ? Rather, is 
he not an insidious foe ? — some emissary, per- 
haps, from New York, plotting the ruin of both 
by sowing the seeds of discord and separation 
between the civil and military powers of the 
continent ? " 

He expressed his entire conviction that it was 
the intention of Congress to do full justice to 
the claims of the army, and that they would not 
cease in their endeavours to provide proper funds 
for that object, until they had successfully ac- 
complished it; and for himself, he solemnly and 
affectionately declared to the army, which he 
had so long had the honor to command, that " in 



CLOSE OF WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS. 395 

the attainment of complete justice for all your 
toils and dangers, and in the gratification of 
every wish, so far as may be done consistently 
with the great duty I owe my country and those 
powers we are bound to respect, you may freely 
command my services to the utmost extent of 
my abilities." 

He closed his address with these noble and 
impressive counsels : — 

" Let me request you to rely on the plighted 
faith of your country, and to place a full con- 
fidence in the purity of the intentions of Con- 
gress that, previous to your dissolution as an 
army, they will cause all your accounts to be 
finally liquidated, as directed in the resolutions 
which were published to you two days ago, and 
that they will adopt the most effectual measures 
in their power to render ample justice to you 
for your faithful and meritorious services. And 
let me conjure you, in the name of our common 
country, as you value your own sacred honor, 
as you respect the rights of humanity, and as 
you regard the military and national character 
of America, to express your utmost horror and 
detestation of the man who wishes, under any 
specious pretences, to overturn the liberties of 
your country, and who wickedly attempts to open 
the floodgates of civil discord, and deluge our 
rising empire in blood." 

Never was there presented a spectacle of 
greater moral sublimity than this : the war-worn 



396 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

chief and father of his country, casting behind 
him every suggestion of ambition ; burying every 
resentment ; and forgetting every wrong either 
to himself or his army; in the noble attitude of 
pleading before his discontented, but to him de- 
voted, followers, — with the eloquent sincerity of 
virtue and patriotism, — the cause of civil obe- 
dience, of social order, and republican liberty! 
The effect was immediate and electrical. 

No sooner had Washington withdrawn, than 
resolutions were unanimously adopted by the meet- 
ing, first returning him their thanks for his ex- 
cellent address, and assuring him that " the officers 
reciprocate his affectionate expressions with the 
greatest sincerity of which the human mind is 
capable " ; then expressing their unshaken con- 
fidence in the ultimate justice of Congress, and 
requesting the commander-in-chief to write to 
that body, earnestly entreating its most speedy 
decision on the subject of their claims ; and fi- 
nally declaring that "the officers of the Ameri- 
can army view with abhorrence, and reject with 
disdain, the infamous propositions contained in 
the late anonymous paper addressed to them." 1 

It is difficult to decide whether this unparal- 
leled civic victory achieved by Washington fur- 
nished the greater proof of his virtue or of his 
abilities. In contemplating it, the mind is irre- 
sistibly drawn to the precisely similar circum- 
stances in the history of the parent country, 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. IV. pp 213-215. 



PROOF OF WASHINGTON'S ABILITY. 397 

which, differently employed and taken advantage 
of, led a successful usurper to absolute power. 
A philosophical historian, 1 in estimating the abil- 
ities and intellectual character of the usurper, 
justly remarks that "to incite such an army as 
his to rebellion against the parliament required 
no uncommon art or industry. To have kept 
them in obedience had been the more difficult 
enterprise." It was this more difficult enterprise 
which the abilities of Washington, guided and 
nerved by his virtues, so gloriously accomplished. 

Mr. Madison, in his diary of the proceedings 
of Congress, has recorded the profound impres- 
sion made upon that body by the able and 
magnanimous conduct of the commander-in-chief. 
"The steps taken by the General," he says, "to 
avert the gathering storm, and his professions of 
adherence to his duty to Congress and to his 
country, excited the most affectionate sentiments 
towards him." 2 In a letter to a friend, written 
at the same time, he says, "the conduct of 
Washington does equal honor to his prudence 
and his virtue." 3 

On the very day, the 2 2d of March, that his 
communication transmitting the result of the 
meeting of the officers was received by Con- 
gress, and immediately after it was read, the 
report of the committee in favor of the comma- 

1 Hume. 

2 Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 384. 

3 Idem, p. 519. 

vol. i. 34 



398 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

tation of five years' full pay in lieu of half-pay 
for life was taken up, and agreed to by the 
requisite number of nine States. 1 The lively sat- 
isfaction of the army at this decision was a few 
days afterwards communicated to Congress by 
the General.' - ' 

Thus was dissipated, for the present, one of 
the darkest and most portentous clouds that had 
ever lowered over the destinies of the country. 
The anxieties which it and like critical ques- 
tions, pending at the same moment, produced in 
the minds of Congress, are vividly portrayed in 
the contemporary correspondence, and other me- 
morials of the time. Mr. Madison, writing on 
the day when the news arrived of the commo- 
tions in the army, says : " This alarming intelli- 
gence from the army, added to the critical situ- 
ation to which our affairs in Europe were reduced 
by the variance of our ministers with our ally, 
and to the difficulty of establishing the means 
of fulfilling the engagements and securing the 
harmony of the United States, and to the con- 
fusions apprehended from the approaching resig- 
nation of the superintendent of finance, gave 
peculiar awe and solemnity to the present mo- 
ment, and oppressed the minds of Congress with 
an anxiety and distress, which had been scarcely 
felt in any period of the Revolution." 3 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 384, 385. See also letter of Colo- 
pp. 178, 179. n el Hamilton to General Wash- 

2 See Sparks's Washington, vol. ington, of the 1 7th of March, 1783. 
vih. p. 409. Hist. Am. Rep. vol. u. p. 338. 

a Madison Debates, vol. I. pp. 



INTRIGUE TO INFLAME THE ARMY. 399 

In looking back to this crisis of danger and 
alarm, which seemed at one moment to threaten 
the country with the most fearful convulsions, 
we are led to inquire whether it had arisen nat- 
urally and spontaneously in the course of affairs, 
or whether factitious influences had been em- 
ployed to bring it on and inflame it. Notwith- 
standing the hardships and sufferings of the 
army, and the painful delays which had taken 
place in the adjustment of their claims, they had 
hitherto shown no unreasonable distrust of Con- 
gress, but awaited with patience, and not with- 
out hope and confidence, its final action on their 
memorial. 

But there were other parties, having large pe- 
cuniary claims against the government, who were 
eagerly intent to obtain from Congress and the 
States some definite pledge of tangible funds, to 
enhance the value of the evidences of public 
debt which they held. These parties, not pos- 
sessing so much of the public sympathy, were 
supposed to lend themselves to the dangerous 
scheme of enlisting and exaggerating the discon- 
tents of the army, with the view of bringing the 
influence of fear, — more potent, as they thought, 
than that of justice, — to operate on the deliber- 
ations of Congress and of the States, in favor of 
a general system of funding the public debt. 

Mr. Madison, in his diary of Congress, under 
the date of the 17th of March, 1783, the day 
when General Washington's letter communicating 



400 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the seditious appeal to the army was received, 
records that, "By private letters from the army, 
and other circumstances, there appeared good 
ground for suspecting that the civil creditors were 
intriguing, in order to inflame the army into such 
desperation as would produce a general provis- 
ion for the public debts." 1 

But the most important testimony on this 
subject is that of the commander-in-chief, whose 
opportunities of personal information, added to 
his well-known caution, must give the greatest 
weight to the following statement, made by him 
in a letter addressed on the 12th of March, 1783, 
to Mr. Jones, one of the delegates of Virginia in 
Congress : — 

"My official letter to Congress of this date 
will inform you of what has happened in this 
quarter; in addition to which it may be neces- 
sary that it should be known to you and to 
such others as you may think proper, that the 
army, though very irritable on account of their 
long-protracted sufferings, have been apparently 
extremely quiet while their business was depend- 
ing before Congress, until four days past. In 
the mean time, it should seem reports have been 
propagated in Philadelphia that dangerous com- 
binations were forming in the army ; and this at 
a time when there was not a syllable of the 
kind in agitation in camp. 

"It also appears that upon the arrival of a 

1 Madison Debates, vol. i. p. 384. 



TESTIMONY OF WASHINGTON. 401 

certain gentleman from Philadelphia in camp, 
whose name, at present, I tlo not incline to men- 
tion, such sentiments as these were immediately 
and industriously circulated — that it was univer- 
sally expected the army would not disband until 
they had obtained justice; that the public cred- 
itors looked up to them for redress of their 
grievances, would afford them every aid, and 
even join them in the field, if necessary ; that 
some members of Congress wished the measure 
might take effect, in order to compel the public, 
particularly the delinquent States, to do justice ; 
with many other suggestions of a similar nature. 

" From whence, and a variety of other consid- 
erations, it is generally believed that the scheme 
was not only planned, but also digested and ma- 
tured in Philadelphia, and that some people have 
been playing a double game, spreading at the 
camp and in Philadelphia reports, and raising 
jealousies, equally void of foundation until called 
into being by their vile artifices ; for as soon as 
the minds of the army were thought to be pre- 
pared for the transaction, anonymous invitations 
were circulated, requesting a general meeting of 
the officers the next day. At the same time, 
many copies of the address to the officers of the 
army were scattered in every State line of it." 1 

It is not to be supposed that General Wash- 
ington, — whose habitual respect for the public 
authorities of the country, Congress especially, 

1 Sparks's Washington, vol. vm. pp. 393, 394. 
34* 



402 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

was pushed even to a scrupulous deference, — 
would have hazarded statements of this kind, 
involving the conduct of members of Congress 
among others, without the most absolute convic- 
tion of their correctness. That there were mem- 
bers of that body who entered into the policy 
of bringing the discontents of the army in aid 
of the civil creditors of the United States, is 
established by contemporary proofs of unques- 
tionable authenticity. 

Colonel Alexander Hamilton, then a delegate 
in Congress from New York, wrote, as early as 
the 7th of February, 1783, to General Washing- 
ton,' confidentially, to the following effect : — 

"If the war continues, it would seem that the 
army must, in June, subsist itself, to defend the 
country ; if peace should take place, it will sub- 
sist itself, to do justice to itself. It appears to 
be a prevailing opinion in the army that the 
disposition to recompense their services will cease 
with the necessity for them, and that, if they 
once lay down their arms, they part with the 
means of obtaining justice. It is to be lamented 
that appearances afford too much ground for 
their distrust. 

" It becomes a serious question, what is the 
true line of policy ? The claims of the army, 
urged with moderation, but with firmness, may 
operate on those weak minds which are influ- 
enced by their apprehensions more than by their 
judgments, so as to produce a concurrence in 



LETTERS OF COLONEL HAMILTON. 403 

the measures which the exigencies of affairs de- 
mand. They may add weight to the applications 
of Congress to the several States. So far a use- 
ful turn may be given to them. But the diffi- 
culty will be to keep a complaining and suffering 
army within the bounds of moderation. 

"This your Excellency's influence must effect. 
In order to it, it will be desirable not to dis- 
countenance their endeavours to procure redress, 
but rather by the intervention of confidential 
and prudent persons, to take the direction of 
them. This, however, must not appear. It is 
of moment to the public tranquillity that your 
Excellency should preserve the confidence of the 
army, without losing that of the people. This 
will enable you, in case of extremity, to guide 
the torrent, and to bring order, perhaps even 
good, out of confusion. 'Tis a part which re- 
quires address, but 'tis one which your own sit- 
uation, as well as the welfare of the community, 
points out." 

In a subsequent part of the letter is the fol- 
lowing paragraph : — 

"The great desideratum, at present, is the 
establishment of general funds, which alone can 
do justice to the creditors of the United States, 
(of whom the army forms the most meritorious 
class,) restore public credit, and supply the future 
wants of government. This is the object of all 
men of sense ; in this, the influence of the army, 
properly directed, may cooperate." 1 

1 See letter in Ham. Hist. Am. Rep. vol. n. pp. 365-367. 



404 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

To the suggestion contained in this letter, 
General Washington, on the 4th of March, re- 
plied with dignity and wisdom, in the following 
terms : — 

" The just claims of the army ought, and, it is 
to be hoped, will have their weight with every 
sensible legislature in the Union, if Congress 
point to their demands, show (if the case be so) 
the reasonableness of them, and the impractica- 
bility of complying without their aid. In any 
other point of view, it would, in my opinion, be 
impolitic to introduce the army on the tapis, lest 
it should excite jealousy and bring on its con- 
comitants." 1 

On the 12th clay of March, he again wrote to 
Colonel Hamilton, repeating, with regard to the 
occurrences which had taken place in camp, all 
the statements contained in his letter of the 
same date to Mr. Jones, with the added remark, 
"There is something very mysterious in this 
business." 2 

Colonel Hamilton replied to this letter on the 
17th of March, and in a postscript makes the 
following observations : — 

"Your Excellency mentions that it has been 
surmised the plan in agitation was formed in 
Philadelphia ; that combinations have been talked 
of between the public creditors and the army; 
and that members of Congress had encouraged 

1 See letter in Ham. Hist. Am. Rep. vol. n. p. 381. 
a Idem, p. 385. 



LETTERS OF COLONEL HAMILTON. 405 

the idea. This is partly true. I have myself 
urged in Congress the propriety of uniting the 
influence of the public creditors, and the army 
as a part of them, to prevail upon the States to 
enter into their views. I have expressed the 
same sentiments out of doors. Several other 
members of Congress have done the same. The 
meaning;, however, of all this was simpty that 
Congress should adopt such a plan as would em- 
brace the relief of all the public creditors, in- 
cluding the army, in order that the personal 
influence of some, the connections of others, and 
a sense of justice to the army, as well as the 
apprehension of ill consequences, might form a 
mass of influence in each State in favor of the 
measures of Congress. In this view, as I men- 
tioned to your Excellency in a former letter, I 
thought the discontents of the army might be 
turned to good account. I am still of opinion 
that their earnest but respectful applications for 
redress will have a good effect. As to any com- 
bination of force, it would only be productive of 
the horrors of a civil war, might end in the ruin 
of the country, and would certainly end in the 
ruin of the army." 1 

In a subsequent letter of the 25th of March 
to General Washington, Colonel Hamilton farther 
explained his ideas as to the inexpediency and 
hopelessness of the army's seeking redress by 
force, and then adds — 

i See letter in Ham. Hist. Am. Rep. vol. n. p. 390. 



406 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

"I make these observations, not that I imag- 
ine your Excellency can want motives to continue 
your influence in the path of moderation ; but 
merely to show why I cannot myself enter into 
the views of coercion which some gentlemen en- 
tertain ; for I confess, could force avail, I should 
almost wish to see it employed. I have an in- 
different opinion of the honesty of this country, 
and ill forebodings of its future system." 1 

General Washington, in a letter to Colonel 
Hamilton of the 4th of April, gives the coup de 
grace, in the following emphatic terms, to every 
idea of making the army an instrument, in the 
hands of the civil creditors and their patrons, to 
carry through a favorite scheme of finance : — 

" I will now, in strict confidence, mention a 
matter which may be useful for you to be in- 
formed of. It is that some men (and leading 
ones too) in this army are beginning to enter- 
tain suspicions that Congress, or some members 
of it, regardless of their past sufferings and pres- 
ent distress, — maugre the justice which is clue to 
them, and the returns which a grateful people 
should make to men who certainly have contrib- 
uted more than any other class to the establish- 
ment of national independency, — [wish to make] 
use of them as puppets to establish continental 
funds ; and that rather than not succeed in this 
measure, or weaken their ground, they would 
make a sacrifice of the armv and all its interests. 

1 See letter in Ham. Hist. Am. Rep. vol. ir. p. 498. 



INFLEXIBILITY OF WASHINGTON. 407 

"I have two reasons for mentioning this mat- 
ter to yon. The one is, that the army (consid- 
ering the irritable state it is in, its sufferings, 
and composition) is a dangerous instrument to 
play with; the other, that every possible means 
consistent with their own views, (which are cer- 
tainly moderate,) should be essayed to get it dis- 
banded without delay. I might add a third; it 
is that the financier is suspected to be at the 
bottom of the scheme." 1 

By the inflexible firmness and stern integrity 
of Washington, proof alike against seduction and 
surprise, the country and the army were delivered 
from the dangers which impended over both. 

It is deeply to be regretted that even a shade 
of dissatisfaction, at such a moment, should have 
rested upon the conduct of one who had ren- 
dered such important services to the cause of 
American independence as Robert Morris, the 
superintendent of finance. A letter of conditional 
resignation, which had been recently addressed 
by him to Congress, was interpreted by many as 
a menace to intimidate that body and the States 
into the adoption of certain plans for the benefit 
of the public creditors ; and »it detracted, for a 
time, from the consideration he had so justly en- 
joyed. 

Mr. Madison was one of those who had, in the 
main, zealously sustained Mr. Morris's administra- 

1 See letter in Ham. Hist. Am. Rep. vol. u. pp. 449, 450. 



408 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

tion ; and warmly vindicated him from the as- 
saults of two of his colleagues, Mr. Lee and Mr. 
Bland. 1 But when, on the reading of his condi- 
tional resignation in Congress, a motion was 
made, first to commit it, and then to assign a 
day for its consideration, as if with the wish of 
inducing Mr. Morris to withdraw it, Mr. Madison 
firmly declared that, " however anxious might be 
their wishes, or alarming their apprehensions, 
Congress could not condescend to solicit Mr. Mor- 
ris, even if there were a prospect of the solicita- 
tion being successful." 2 Happily for his fame, 
no less than for the interests of the country, cir- 
cumstances occurred which prevented his resig- 
nation from then taking effect. 3 

1 Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. tween him and committee of Con- 
137, 138. gress, on the 28th of April, 1783, 

2 Idem, pp. 274, 275. in Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 

3 See report of interview be- p. 216. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Efforts of Congress to establish a System of general Revenue — Re- 
sult of Application to the States for Power to levy Imposts — 
Rhode Island refuses — Virginia, after granting, repeals her Grant 
— Mr. Madison annoyed and embarrassed by the Opposition of 
his State — Determines, nevertheless, to pursue the Convictions of 
his own Judgment in Favor of a System of general Revenue — 
Delivers his Views in an able and patriotic Speech — ■ Moves a 
Modification of the Proposition before Congress — His Modification 
adopted — Subject referred to a select Committee, of which he was 
a Member — His Views in the Committee — Report made in Con- 
formity to them — Outline of the Report — Finally adopted by 
Congress, with slight Variations — Mr. Madison Chairman of Com- 
mittee to prepare an Address to the States in Support of the 
Plan agreed to — Luminous and eloquent Address drawn by him, 
and adopted by Congress — Sketch of it — Colonel Hamilton op- 
posed to the Plan submitted by Congress to the States — Reasons 
of his Opposition — General Washington, in his Circular Letter to 
the States, warmly commends the Address, and urges them to 
adopt the Plan submitted by Congress — Distinctive Features of 
political Systems of Hamilton and Madison begin to disclose 
themselves — Reception of Revenue Plan by Legislature of Vir- 
ginia — Note on Accusations against Mr. Madison by Biographer 
of Colonel Hamilton. 

It now remained for Congress to devise and 
mature some reliable system of revenue that 

VOL. I. 35 



410 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

would enable them to meet the national engage- 
ments, as well as to provide for the current 
wants of the public service. This had become 
an object of the highest importance, not merely 
to the honor, but to the very existence of the 
nation. Requisitions upon the States having long 
since proved a wholly unreliable resource, Con- 
gress, by their resolution of the 3d of February, 
1781, which we have already had occasion to 
refer to, appealed to the several States to grant 
them the power to levy, for the use of the 
United States, a uniform duty of five per cent, 
upon all foreign merchandise imported into the 
country. 

This application had been acceded to by all 
of the States except Rhode Island, who persisted 
in refusing, and Georgia, who had not yet de- 
finitively acted upon the subject, Virginia, who 
had promptly passed an act in full conformity 
with the application of Congress, afterwards sus- 
pended the operation of her act, until all the 
other States should notify their compliance. 
While Congress was endeavouring, by renewed 
remonstrances, to urge their application upon the 
non-complying States, Rhode Island especially, in- 
formation was received that Virginia had at 
length wdiolly repealed her act of compliance. 

There was no person to whom this intelligence 
could have been more painful than Mr. Madison. 
We have seen how early, and with how much 
earnestness of duty and conviction, he espoused 



EFFORTS FOR FEDERAL REVENUE. 4H 

the cause of obtaining more adequate and certain 
revenues for the support of the Avar and the 
faithful discharge of all the public engagements. 
It was an object which, in his estimation, "jus- 
tice, gratitude, our reputation abroad, and oui 
tranquillity at home," imperiously called for ; and 
in a letter to his colleague, Mr. Randolph, of the 
28th of January, 1782, when informed merely 
of the provisional suspension by the legislature 
of Virginia of their first act, he emphatically de- 
clared, "Congress cannot abandon the plan, as 
long as there is a spark of hope : nay, other 
plans, on a like principle, must be added." 1 

An elaborate answer had been prepared by a 
committee, of which Colonel Hamilton was chair- 
man, to the objections brought by Pdiode Island 
against the grant of the proposed impost ; and 
a deputation of members was appointed by Con- 
gress to take charge of it, and, by their personal 
representations, to enforce upon the legislature 
of that State the strong motives, deduced from 
the public safety and honor, for her compliance. 
The answer was marked, in several of its fea- 
tures, by the peculiar and uncompromising views 
of its author ; but it nevertheless passed without 
opposition. The deputation had already set out 
upon their mission, and had accomplished one 
day's journey, when, hearing of the unfavorable 
decision of Virginia, they returned to ask farther 
instructions. Notwithstanding the discouragement 

i Ante, pp. 311-313. 



412 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

produced by this new phase of the question, it 
was determined that they should proceed on 
their errand. 1 

The resolution of the 25th of January, 1783, 
upon the memorial of the army, having recog- 
nized their right in common with the other cred- 
itors of the United States to expect a substan- 
tial security for the payment of the debts due 
them, and pledged Congress to use its best 
efforts to obtain from the States adequate funds 
for that object, it was made the order of the 
dav for the 27th to take into consideration the 
nature of those funds and the means of obtain- 
ing them. On that day, a wide and interesting 
debate took place ; and a resolution was proposed 
in the following words — that "complete justice 
cannot be done to the creditors of the United 
States, nor the restoration of public credit be 
effected, nor the further exigencies of the war 
be provided for, but by the establishment of 
general funds to be collected by Congress." 2 

On the same day, and immediately after this 
proposition was made, an official notification was 
laid before Congress of the act of the legisla- 
ture of Virginia, repealing the former act by 
which they granted the five per cent, impost. 
Among the circumstances which influenced the 
conduct of Virginia at this time, were, undoubt- 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. 2 Madison Debates, vol. I. pp 
pp. 238, 239, and Journals of Con- 284, 285. 
gress, vol. iv. p. 120. 



PROCEEDINGS IN VIRGINIA. 413 

edly, the persevering refusal of Rhode Island to 
concur in the grant, and also the belief gener- 
ally entertained by the peoj)le of Virginia that 
they had already contributed more than their 
fair proportionate share of the expenses of the 
war. But the preamble to the act of repeal set 
forth reasons of a more comprehensive and sig- 
nificant character, which furnish a striking illus- 
tration of the jealousy of federal power then 
beginning to prevail, and the extreme reluctance 
of the States to enlarge the sphere of congres- 
sional authority. 

It affirmed that, " Whereas, the permitting any 
power, other than the General Assembly of this 
Commonwealth, to levy duties or taxes upon the 
citizens of this State within the same, is injuri- 
ous to its sovereignty, may prove destructive of 
the rights and liberties of the people, and, so far 
as Congress might exercise the same, is contra- 
vening, the spirit of the confederation in the 
eighth article thereof," — therefore the former act 
shall be and is repealed. 1 

The legislature here announced principles, not 
only opposed to the grant of a power to Con- 
gress to levy a five per cent, impost duty, but 
directly at war with any plan of general reve- 
nue under the control of Congress. Mr. Madi- 
son could not but feel how delicate his position, 
as a delegate of Virginia, was rendered by so 
sweeping a declaration of the adverse sentiments 

1 Hen. Stat. vol. xi. p. 171. 
35* 



414 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of his constituents ; but his sense of the national 
dangers and embarrassments, and of the duty he 
owed to the whole country, overruled every per- 
sonal consideration. In a letter to Mr. Edmund 
Randolph, of the 28th of January, 1783, he says : 

"Such of the Virginia delegates as concur in 
the opinion [of the necessity and expediency 
of some system of general revenue] are put in 
a delicate situation by the preamble to the late 
repeal of the impost by Virginia. Persuaded as 
I am, however, of the truth of the proposition, 
and believing as I do, that, with the same knowl- 
edge of facts which my station commands, my 
constituents would never have passed that act, 
and would now rescind it, my assent will be 
hazarded. For many reasons, which I have not 
time to explain in cypher, it is my decided opin- 
ion that unless such funds be established, the 
foundations of our independence will be laid in 
injustice and dishonor, and that the advantages 
of the Revolution, dependent upon the federal 
compact, will be of short duration." 

On the very day that this letter was written, 
Mr. Madison, in execution of his patriotic deter- 
mination, delivered his sentiments in Congress at 
much length, and with great earnestness and 
ability, in support of the propriety and neces- 
sity of a system of continental revenue. 

He commenced by observing that " it was need- 
less to go into proofs of the necessity of paying 
the public debts. The idea of erecting our na- 



MR. MADISON SUPPORTS PLAN OF REVENUE. 415 

tional independence on the ruins of public faith 
and national honor must be horrid to every 
mind which retained either' honesty or pride." 
The only question was, which of the plans sug- 
gested for the ultimate discharge of the public en- 
gagements, and the support of public credit, is suf- 
ficient and reliable. He then proceeded to show 
that the old method of periodical requisitions on 
the States had been tried, and had signally failed ; 
that there were insuperable difficulties in the 
way of the establishment of permanent funds by 
the States separately, to be applied regularly to 
the liquidation of the public debt ; and that the 
only expedient that remained was some plan 
" of general revenue operating throughout the 
United States under the superintendence of Con- 
gress. 

" The consequences with respect to the Union 
of omitting such a provision for the debts of the 
United States," he said, " claimed particular atten- 
tion. The tenor of the memorial from Pennsyl- 
vania, and of the information just given on the 
floor by one of its delegates, (Mr. Fitzsimmons,) 
renders it extremely probable that that State 
would, as soon as it should be known that Con- 
gress had declined such provision, or the States 
rejected it, appropriate the revenue required by 
Congress to the payment of its own citizens and 
troops, creditors of the United States. The irreg- 
ular conduct of other States on this subject, en- 
forced by such an example, could not fail to 



416 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

spread the evil throughout the whole continent. 
What, then, would become of the confederation? 
What would be the authority of Congress ? What 
the tie by which the States would be held to- 
gether? What the source by which the army 
could be subsisted and clothed ? What the mode 
of dividing and discharging our foreign debt? 
What the rule of settling: the internal accounts ? 
What the tribunal by which controversies among 
the States could be adjudicated ? 

" It ought to be carefully remembered that 
this subject was brought before Congress by a 
very solemn appeal from the army to the justice 
and gratitude of the country. Besides immediate 
pay, they ask for permanent security for the ar- 
rears. Is not this request a reasonable one ? 
Will it be just and politic to pass over the only 
adequate security that can be devised, and, in- 
stead of fulfilling the stipulations of the United 
States to them, to leave them to seek their re- 
wards from the States to which they respectively 
belong ? The patience of the army has been 
equal to their bravery ; but that patience must 
have its limits, and the result of despair cannot 
be foreseen, nor ought to be risked." 

After adverting to the several objections al- 
leged by the legislature of Virginia against a 
system of general revenue under the control of 
Congress, and answering each of those objections 
in succession, Mr. Madison concluded with the 
following remarks in reference to his own position, 



HIS VIEWS OF REPRESENTATIVE DUTY. 417 

which deserve to be borne in remembrance for 
the elevated conception they convey of both the 
responsibility and the self-respect belonging to 
the representative character. 

" The State of Virginia," he said, " as appears 
by an act yesterday laid before Congress, has 
withdrawn its assent once given to the impost. 
This circumstance could not but produce some 
embarrassment in a representative of that State 
advocating the scheme — one, too, whose princi- 
ples were extremely unfavorable to a disregard 
of the sense of constituents. But it should not 
deter him from listening to considerations which, 
in the present instance, ought to prevail over it. 

" One of these considerations was that, although 
the delegates who compose Congress more imme- 
diately represent, and were amenable to, the 
States from which they respectively come, yet in 
another view they owed a fidelity to the collec- 
tive interests of the whole. Secondly, although 
not only the express instructions, but the de- 
clared sense of constituents, as in the present 
case, were to be a law in general to their rep- 
resentative, still there were occasions on which 
the latter ought to hazard personal consequences, 
from a respect to what his clear conviction de- 
termines to be the true interest of the former ; 
and the present he conceived to fall under this 
exception. Lastly, the part he took on the pres- 
ent occasion was the more justifiable to his own 
mind by his thorough persuasion that, with the 



418 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

same knowledge of public affairs which his sta- 
tion commanded, the legislature of Virginia would 
not have repealed the law in favor of the impost, 
and would even now rescind the repeal." 

Having thus made up his mind to meet what- 
ever consequences might arise to himself person- 
all v from a conscientious discharge of his duty 
to the country, he addressed himself, with all 
the energies both of his understanding and his 
will, to perfecting such a plan of general reve- 
nue as, while providing for the obligations of the 
national faith and honor, would have a reason- 
able prospect of obtaining the necessary assent 
of the States. The urgency of the crisis de- 
manded something practicable, if not in every 
particular conformable to the rigid exactness of 
theoretical speculation. 

The proposition which had been offered de- 
clared the " establishment of general funds, to be 
collected by Congress," to be indispensably neces- 
sary. Mr. Madison moved to modify it by sub- 
stituting a more precise declaration, that " the 
establishment of permanent and adequate funds, to 
operate generally throughout the United States," 
was indispensably necessary; and in order to ob- 
tain first the sanction of Congress to the general 
principle, without encumbering it with a ques- 
tion of detail, which would probably give rise to 
great difference of opinion, he proposed to omit, 
for the present, the cumulative clause, "to be 
collected by Congress ; " leaving that for separate 
and ulterior consideration. 



DETAILS OF PLAN DISCUSSED. 419 

The proposition so modified was passed in 
committee of the whole the following day, with- 
out opposition, 1 and on the 12th of February, 
was agreed to in the House by the votes of 
eight States; none of the States giving a col- 
lective negative, but three of them being divided 
in their votes. 2 Virginia was one of the divided 
States : Mr. Arthur Lee and Colonel Mercer voting 
against the proposition, and assailing it in every 
stage of its progress. Against their united as- 
saults, Mr. Madison sometimes stood alone to 
defend it, and was made to feel, on more than 
one occasion, that " a man's enemies are the men 
of his own house." 

After the adoption of the general proposition, 
Congress spent several days, in committee of the 
whole, in considering and discussing the details 
of some practical measure to give effect to it. 
The first question discussed was the expediency 
of submitting to the States, in a new form, 
the application for authority to levy imposts. 
This being determined in the affirmative, the 
sense of the body was taken, by separate and 
direct votes, on the mode of collecting the pro- 
posed duties, whether by officers of state or fed- 
eral appointment, and also on the duration of 
the term for which the authority should be 
asked. 

On the first, it was decided by a large major- 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. 2 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 
P- 304. p. 160. 



420 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ity of the States, (New York and Pennsylvania 
alone dissenting,) that the appointment of col- 
lectors should be left to the States, but when 
appointed, to be amenable to, and under the con- 
trol of Congress; and on the second, that the 
power asked should be for a term of twenty-five 

years. 1 

Many other suggestions were thrown out and 
discussed in committee of the whole, pointing to 
other sources of revenue and modes of taxation; 
when the whole subject was at length, on the 
21st of February, referred to a select committee, 
consisting of Mr. Gorham of Massachusetts, Colo- 
nel Hamilton of New York, Mr. Madison of Vir- 
ginia, Mr. Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania, and Mr. 
Rutledge of South Carolina. 2 

The committee was closely occupied with their 
difficult and important duty for several weeks. 
Mr. Madison desired that the plan presented by 
them should be a broad and comprehensive one, 
embracing the equitable claims and interests of 
all the States, so as to add to the probability of 
a general concurrence in the scheme which 
should be finally recommended. He was, there- 
fore, in favor of including in their report, together 
with the best practicable arrangements for a gen- 
eral revenue, provisions for an equitable abate- 
ment of the quotas of such of the States as had 
been in possession of the enemy during any con- 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. 2 Idem, p. 357, and Journals of 
pp. 333, 334, 342-7, and 347-9. Congress, vol. IV. pp. 165 and 174. 



MR, MADISON'S TROJET. 421 

siderable period of the war ; a reasonable allow- 
ance to others for expenses incurred by them 
without the previous sanction of Congress, in 
their own defence against invasion, or in military 
enterprises for the common benefit ; a renewed 
recommendation of a liberal cession of public 
lands by the individual States claiming them; 
and the substitution, under certain qualifications, 
of the number of inhabitants, as a rule, for ap- 
portioning pecuniary burdens among the States, 
in lieu of the unsatisfactory and impracticable 
standard established by the articles of confedera- 
tion in a valuation of the appropriated lands 
within each State, and of the improvements 
thereon. 

Accompanying Mr. Madison's diary of the pro- 
ceedings and debates of Congress, is a remarkable 
paper drawn up by him at the time, exhibiting 
a financial and political chart of the several 
States, and showing how the interests and dispo- 
sitions of each would be affected by the various 
parts of his extensive and well-adjusted projet} 
This paper affords a striking illustration of the 
largeness of the author's views, of his habit of 
surveying a subject on every side and in all its 
relations, and of his eminent talent for political 
organization and construction. 

On the 6th of March, the committee made 
their report, embracing all the principles and 
provisions above mentioned. It underwent re- 

1 See Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 361-364. 
vol. i. 36 



422 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

peated discussions in Congress ; parts of it were, 
from time to time, recommitted to the committee 
which brought it in ; some modifications and 
alterations were made ; and finally, on the 18th 
of April, 1783, the report received the sanction 
of Congress in all its essential and fundamental 
provisions, omitting only the abatements and 
allowances proposed in favor of certain classes 
of States, which, however just and equitable in 
themselves, were too obnoxious to the operation 
of local and sectional jealousies to admit of an 
impartial judgment upon their merits. 

The plan, thus carefully digested, and adopted 
upon mature deliberation, embraced the follow- 
ing objects : First, the grant by the States to 
Congress of a power to levy, for a term of 
twenty-five years, certain specific rates of duty 
on a few enumerated articles of general con- 
sumption imported from abroad, and upon all 
other imports a uniform duty of five per cent. 
These duties were to be set apart inviolably for 
the purpose of paying the interest or principal 
of the debt contracted, on the faith of the United 
States, for the support of the war; but as their 
present proceeds, it was computed, would not 
exceed a million of dollars, — leaving a million 
and a half of the annual interest of the debt to 
be provided for by other means, — it was pro- 
posed that the States should establish within 
themselves, for a term of twenty-five years also, 
substantial and effectual revenues of such nature 



PLAN REPORTED BY COMMITTEE. 423 

as they should judge most convenient, in order to 
pay their respective proportions of this additional 
sum, which was to be faithfully applied, in like 
manner, to the debt contracted for the support 
of the war. 

The officers for the collection of both descrip- 
tions of revenue, were to be appointed by the 
States, but to be amenable to and removable by 
Congress. 

In farther aid of these funds, the States, claim- 
ing large bodies of unappropriated lands, were 
to be called on to complete the "liberal ces- 
sions " already recommended ; and which, it was 
hoped, with the progressive increase of the rev- 
enue from imposts, and the usual requisitions 
upon the States, would furnish the means of ex- 
tinguishing the principal of the debt at no dis- 
tant day. 

Finally, as the rule prescribed by the articles 
of confederation for apportioning the common 
charge among the States, according to the esti- 
mated value of all the appropriated lands within 
each, was scarcely susceptible of execution, or, if 
it were, would be productive of mutual distrust 
and dissatisfaction among the States, it was pro- 
posed to substitute in lieu of it a periodical cen- 
sus of the population, which should include the 
whole number of white and free inhabitants, 
and three fifths of all other persons. This was 
the origin of the compromise afterwards incor- 
porated into the constitution of the United 



424 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



States. 1 Both it and the renewed recommenda- 
tion of " liberal cessions " of the public lands by 

liable to many and insuperable 
objections, the committee, charged 
with the preparation of a plan of 



1 The history of this question is 
somewhat curious, and deserves to 
be recalled. In the articles of con- 



federation as originally reported by revenue, determined to recom- 

a committee to Congress, in July, mend to the States to rescind alto- 

1776, the rule of apportionment gether the existing rule established 

proposed was the " number of in- by the confederation, and to sub- 



habitants of every age, sex, and 
quality, except Indians not paying 
taxes." This rule was objected to 
bv the Southern States as includ- 
ing slaves, equally with freemen, 
in estimating the tax-paying ability 
of the several States ; whereas, 
they contended that, the labor of 
slaves being less productive than 
that of freemen, in the ratio of at 
least two to one, not more than 
one half of the slaves ought to be 
included in the census of inhabit- 
ants, by which the common charge 
was to be apportioned among all 
the States. This the Northern 
States would not consent to ; and 
the disagreement led to the substi- 
tution, in the articles of confedera- 
tion, of the value of land in lieu 
of the number of inhabitants, as 
the rule of apportionment. [See 
particularly what is said by Mr. 
Wilson of Pennsylvania, and Mr. 
Clark of New Jersey, in Madison 
Debates, vol. I. p. 422.] 

During this Congress, (1783,) 
much time had been spent in en- 
deavouring to devise some satisfac- 
tory mode of making a valuation 
of the appropriated lands in the 
several States, as required by the 
articles of confederation ; but the 
mode at last agreed upon being 



stitute the standard of numbers, 
including only slaves within cer- 
tain designated a^es. TSee Mad- 
ison Debates, vol. I. pp. 376, 377.] 

When the report of the com- 
mittee was taken up for consider- 
ation, it was generally agreed that, 
instead of fixing the number of 
slaves to be included in the census 
by ages, it would be better to fix 
it by some certain specific ratio. 
It was proposed, on the 28th of 
March, by the committee, that two 
blacks should be rated as one free- 
man. Mr. Rutledge of South Car- 
olina said that, in his opinion, it 
would be more just to rate three 
blacks as one freeman, though he 
would, in a spirit of compromise, 
agree to the ratio proposed by the 
committee. Mr. Arthur Lee de- 
clared that, in his judgment, two 
slaves were not equal to one free- 
man. Mr. Carroll of Maryland was 
for rating them as four to one. The 
representatives of the Northern 
States generally were for rat in a; 
them as four to three. A motion 
was at length made to rate them as 
three to two, but was rejected. 

Mr. Madison, then, in order to 
bring about a compromise among 
these various opinions, rose and 
proposed that the slaves should be 



ADDRESS TO THE STATES BY MR. MADISON. 425 

individual States, though proper adjuncts of a 
financial system for the confederacy, were yet 
more important as political provisions tending to 
promote the future harmony and union of the 
States. 

Immediately after the adoption of the plan, a 
committee, consisting of Mr. Madison, Mr. Ells- 
worth, and Mr. Hamilton, was appointed to pre- 
pare an address to the States, to accompany and 
recommend it to their acceptance. The address 
was drawn by Mr. Madison. For lucid exposi- 
tion, pregnant conciseness and precision, dignity, 
eloquence, and force, it will ever stand among 
the model State papers of America. After de- 
veloping and explaining the various parts of the 
plan, with the cogent considerations of justice 
and policy on which they were severally founded, 
the address proceeds : — 

rated as five to three. This prop- tion ; and upon the reconsidera- 

osition was carried by the votes of tion, the clause which had been 

all the Southern States, together struck out was reinstated, with the 

with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, rate of three fifths for slaves, as 

and New Hampshire, and the blank proposed by Mr. Madison, and in 

in the report was accordingly filled that form was finally adopted by 

with the rate of three fifths. But the votes of eight States. It will 

after the blank was so filled, a mo- be seen, therefore, that the com- 

tion was made by Mr. Bland of promise of this question, which now 

Virginia to strike out the clause as forms a part of the constitution of 

amended, and was carried, in con- the United States, had its orimn 

sequence of the loss of the vote of with Mr. Madison in the Congress 

New York by the absence of Colo- of 1783, and not, as it has been 

nel Hamilton. This being the recently attempted to show, with 

case, Colonel Hamilton, three days Colonel Hamilton. [See Madison 

afterwards, (1st April,) moved a Debates, vol. i. pp. 422-425, and 

reconsideration of the vote of the 430, and Journals of Congress, 

28th of March on Mr. Bland's mo- vol. iv. pp. 180, and 182, 183.] 

36* 



426 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

" The plan thus communicated and explained 
by Congress must now receive its fate from their 
constituents. All the objects comprised in it are 
conceived to be of great importance to the hap- 
piness of this confederate republic, are necessary 
to render the fruits of the Revolution a full re- 
ward for the blood, the toils, the cares, and the 
calamities which have purchased it. But the ob- 
ject, of which the necessity will be peculiarly felt, 
and which it is peculiarly the duty of Congress 
to inculcate, is the provision recommended for 
the national debt. Although this debt is greater 
than could have been wished, it is still less, on 
the whole, than could have been expected ; and 
when referred to the cause in which it has been 
incurred, and compared with the burdens which 
wars of ambition and vainglory have entailed on 
other nations, it ought to be borne not only 
with cheerfulness, but pride." 

An appeal is then made to those generous 
and elevated sentiments which enter into the 
policy of great States, no less than into the mo- 
tives and conduct of wise and honorable men. 

" If other motives," it says, u than that of jus- 
tice could be requisite on this occasion, no nation 
could ever feel stronger ; for to whom are the 
debts to be paid ? 

" To an ally, in the first place, who, to the ex- 
ertion of his arms in support of our cause, has 
added the succours of his treasure ; who, to his 
important loans, has added liberal donations; 



ADDRESS TO THE STATES BY MR. MADISON. 427 

and whose loans themselves carry the impression 
of his magnanimity and friendship 

"To individuals in a foreign country, in the 
next place, who were the first to give so precious 
a token of their confidence in our justice, and 
of their friendship for our cause, and who are 
members of a republic which was second in 
espousing our rank among nations 

"Another class of creditors is that illustrious 
and patriotic band of fellow-citizens, whose blood 
and whose bravery have defended the liberties 
of their country ; who have patiently borne, 
among other distresses, the privation of their 
stipends, while the distresses of their country dis- 
abled it from bestowing them ; and who, even 
now, ask for no more than such a portion of 
their dues as will enable them to retire from 
the field of victory and glory into the bosom of 
peace and private citizenship, and for such effect- 
ual security for the residue of their claims as 
their country is now unquestionably able to pro- 
vide. For a full view of their sentiments and 
wishes on this subject, we transmit the paper 
No. 7 ; and as a fresh proof and lively instance 
of their superiority to every species of seduction 
from the paths of virtue and honor, we add the 
paper No. 8. 

"The remaining class of creditors is composed 
partly of such of our fellow-citizens as originally 
lent to the public the use of their funds, or have 
since manifested most confidence in their country 



428 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

by receiving transfers from the lenders, and 
partly of those whose property has been either 
advanced or assumed for the public service. To 
discriminate the merits of these several descrip- 
tions of creditors would be a task equally unne- 
cessary and invidious. If the voice of humanity 
plead more loudly in favor of some than of 
others, the voice of policy, no less than of jus- 
tice, pleads in favor of all. A wise nation will 
never permit those who relieve the wants of 
their country, or who rely most on its faith, its 
firmness, and its resources, when either of them 
is distrusted, to suffer by the event." 

The address concludes with the following re- 
flections, worthy alike of the patriot, the states- 
man, and the enlightened friend of freedom and 
of mankind. 

"Let it be remembered, finally, that it has 
ever been the pride and boast of America that 
the rights for which she contended were the 
rights of human nature. By the blessing of the 
Author of these rights on the means exerted for 
their defence, they have prevailed against all 
opposition, and form the basis of thirteen inde- 
pendent States. No instance has heretofore oc- 
curred, nor can any instance be expected here- 
after to occur, in which the unadulterated forms 
of republican government can pretend to so fair 
an opportunity of justifying themselves by their 
fruits. In this view, the citizens of the United 
States are responsible for the greatest trust ever 
confided to a political society 



ADDRESS TO THE STATES BY MR. MADISON. 429 

"If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude, and 
all the other qualities that ennoble the charac- 
ter of a nation, and fulfil the ends of govern- 
ments, be the fruits of our establishments, the 
cause of liberty Avill acquire a dignity and lustre 
which it has never yet enjoyed ; and an exam- 
ple will be set which cannot but have the most 
favorable influence on the rights of mankind. 
If, on the other side, our government should be 
unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these 
cardinal and essential virtues, the great cause 
which we have engaged to vindicate will be dis- 
honored and betrayed ; the last and fairest ex- 
periment in favor of the rights of human nature 
will be turned against them, and their patrons 
and friends exposed to be insulted and silenced 
by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation." 

This great measure, carried through Congress 
mainly by the persevering exertions of Mr. Mad- 
ison, and presented to the States by his lucid 
and eloquent pen, had encountered the steady, 
and at last almost solitary opposition of Colonel 
Hamilton. His objections to the plan rested 
chiefly on the agency assigned to the States in 
the appointment of the officers to be charged 
with the collection of the proposed revenues, and 
the limitation of the grant to a specific term of 
years. He also desired to include, with the other 
revenues provided for, both a land tax and a 
house tax to be imposed directly by the federal 
authority. On several of these points, his opinions 



430 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

were overruled by repeated votes of Congress; 
and when the plan, progressively matured, was 
finally submitted as a whole to the House, his 
vote was the only one, besides that of one of 
the delegates of Massachusetts, (Mr. Higginson,) 
recorded with the stereotyped negative of the 
Rhode Island representatives against it. 1 

The political disciples and admirers of Colonel 
Hamilton have made a merit of his conduct on 
this occasion, as marking superior wisdom and 
sagacity ; and have, in the same degree, censured 
the course of Mr. Madison for concurring: in 
measures deemed by them inconsistent with the 
complete efficiency of a perfect national system. 
Without entering into any discussion here of the 
relative merits of different systems, in an abstract 
point of view, it is sufficient, in the present con- 
nection, to recall the remark — as just as it is 
striking — of a celebrated and practised English 
statesman. " The true point of political wisdom," 
he says, " consists in distinguishing justly between 
what is absolutely best in speculation, and what 
is best of the things practicable in particular 
conjunctures." 2 The plan which received the 
sanction of Mr. Madison was the utmost that the 
prevailing jealousies of federal authority, at the 
time, gave any, the slightest hope of obtaining 
from the States ; and the urgent and vital neces- 
sities of the republic demanded that something 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 2 Bolingbroke, Dissertation on 
pp. 190, 191 Parties, Lett. vn. 



OPPOSITION OF COLONEL HAMILTON. 431 

practicable, — "the best of the things practicable" 
in the existing conjuncture of public affairs and 
public sentiment, — should be presented for adop- 
tion. 1 

Mr. Fitzsimmons, a leading delegate of Penn- 
sylvania, a high authority on all questions of 
finance, and generally concurring with Colonel 
Hamilton's views of national policy, separated 
from him on this occasion- and on the 20th of 
March, 1783, in recording his vote against the 
substitute proposed by Hamilton for the plan of 
the committee, he declared that, " on mature re- 
flection, he was convinced that a complete general 
revenue was unattainable from the States, was 
impracticable in the hands of Congress, and that 
the modified provision reported by the commit- 
tee, if established by the States, would restore 

1 Mr. Madison himself, in the merce, and to call for the deficiency 

following remarks made by him in in the most permanent way that 

the debates on this subject, clearly could be reconciled with a revenue 

defined and announced the princi- established within each State sep- 

ples of political action by which arately, and appropriated to the 

he was governed. common treasury. He said the 

"For his part," he said, " al- rule which he had laid down to 

though for various reasons he had himself in this business was, to 

wished for such a plan " (that is, concur in every arrangement that 

as he had before said, the estab- should appear necessary for an 

lishment of a permanent revenue, honorable and just fulfilment of 

to be collected and applied by the public engagements, and in no 

Congress) " as most eligible, he had measure tending to augment the 

never been sanguine that it was power of Congress, which should 

practicable ; and the discussions appear unnecessary ; and particu- 

whicli had taken place had finally larly disclaimed the idea of per- 

satisfied him that it would be ne- petuating a public debt." See 

cessary to limit the call for a gen- Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 354, 

eral revenue to duties on com- 355. 



432 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

public credit among ourselves. He apprehended, 
however, that no limited funds would procure 
loans abroad, which would require funds com- 
mensurate to their duration." 1 

Washington, who had followed the delibera- 
tions of Congress on this subject with the deep- 
est anxiety and closest attention, gave the plan 
finally adopted by Congress his warmest ap- 
proval. In that noble circular letter which he 
addressed about this time to the governors and 
legislatures of the several States, on the occasion 
of the provisional disbandment of the army, (8th 
of June, 1783,) and which he desired should be 
considered as his "legacy" to the country he 
had so long and faithfully served, he speaks of 
the measure itself, and of the address by which 
it was explained and recommended to the States, 
in the following terms of cordial and emphatic 
praise. 

"As to the second article," said he, "which 
respects the performance of public justice, Con- 
gress have, in their late address to the United 
States, almost exhausted the subject. They have 
explained their ideas so fully, and have enforced 
the obligations the States are under to render 
complete justice to all the public creditors with 
so much dignity and energy that, in my opinion, 
no real friend of the honor and independence of 
America can hesitate a single moment respecting 
the propriety of complying with the just and 

1 Sac Madison Debates, vol. i. p. 403. 



SYSTEMS OF HAMILTON AND MADISON. 433 

honorable measures proposed. If their arguments 
do not produce conviction, I know of nothing 
that will have greater influence; especially when 
we recollect that the system referred to, being 
the result of the collective, wisdom of the conti- 
nent, must be esteemed, if not perfect, the least 
objectionable of any that could be devised ; and 
that, if it shall not be carried into immediate 
execution, a national bankruptcy, with all its de- 
plorable consequences, will take place, before 
any different plan can possibly be jDroposed and 
adopted. So pressing are the present circum- 
stances, and such is the alternative now offered 
to the States." 

Although relations of entire cordiality existed 
at this time between Colonel Hamilton and Mr. 
Madison, and continued many years afterwards, 
yet the characteristic differences of their political 
systems, both in principle and temper, began to 
disclose themselves to the eye of the attentive 
observer. The two most remarkable official pa- 
pers of this critical epoch in our history pro- 
ceeded from their respective pens : the answer 
to the Rhode Island objections to the impost, of 
the 16th of December, 1782, from that of Colo- 
nel Hamilton ; and the address to the States, in 
recommendation of the revenue system of the 
18th of April, 1783, as we have seen, from that 
of Mr. Madison. 

In the former paper, we meet with high-toned 
and uncompromising notions of federal power, — 



VOL. I. 37 



434 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

broad and startling doctrines of implication from 
powers expressly granted, — and a fond and con- 
stant recurrence to the necessity of a single 
directing will, with the favorite doctrines of the 
author respecting the beneficial influences of a 
public debt, and of funding systems. In the ad- 
dress to the States, on the other hand, we recog- 
nize the enlightened caution of a comprehensive 
and practical statesmanship, dealing with the 
conflicting elements of a mixed political system, 
in which the jealousies of State pride and sov- 
ereignty were to be reconciled with the necessary 
efficiency of a general, but not unlimited, per- 
vading power; striving after that harmonious 
union and cooperation of distinct wills, which is 
of the essence of such a system, instead of the 
absolute and exclusive ascendency of a single 
will; and animated, in general, with that "spirit 
of mutual deference and concession which" the 
august and enlightened body that finally gave a 
stable constitution to the country, declared "the 
peculiarity of our political situation rendered in- 
dispensable." 

How repugnant to the prevailing sentiment 
of the country were the tone and doctrines of 
the political creed embodied in the answer to 
the legislature of Rhode Island, was exemplified, 
in a singular manner, in the influence they ex- 
erted on the fate of the proposition of Congress 
before the legislature of Virginia. The answer to 
Rhode Island was, with other documents referred 



CLAIMS OF POWER ALARM VIRGINIA. 435 

to, placed in an appendix to the address of Con- 
gress recommending their plan to the considera- 
tion of the States. On the arrival of the address 
in Virginia, the sentiments of the legislature, 
then in session, were exceedingly favorable to 
the acceptance of the proposed plan ; and its 
speedy adoption was confidently anticipated. As 
time and opportunity were given, however, for 
the examination of the various documents which 
accompanied the address, a strong spirit of oppo- 
sition soon manifested itself; and finally, the 
proposition was rejected by the votes of a large 
majority, of the legislature. Mr. Madison's col- 
league, Mr. Jones, who was a member of the body, 
and then attending its session in Riohmond, thus 
announced to him the result, and the causes which 
led to it, in a letter bearing date the 14th of 
June, 1783: — 

"The plan of revenue recommended by Con- 
gress has been considered in a committee of the 
whole ; and the result is contained in the inclosed 
resolutions, which were agreed to without a divis- 
ion, the number appearing in support of the 
plan of Congress being so few as not to require 
it. Mr. Braxton and young Mr. Nelson [after- 
wards Judge William Nelson] only suj)ported it. 
In the course of the debate, Mr. Richard Henry 
Lee and Mr. Charles Mynn Thruston spoke of 
Congress as lusting for power. The idea in the 
letter to Rhode Island, that Congress, having a 
right to borrow and make requisitions that were 



436 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

binding on the States, had a right also to con- 
cert the means for accomplishing the end, was 
reprobated in general as alarming and of danger- 
ous tendency. In short, some of the sentiments 
in the letter to Rhode Island, though argumen- 
tative only, operated so powerfully on people's 
minds here that nothing could induce them to 
adopt the manner recommended by Congress for 
obtaining revenue." 

In a subsequent part of the letter, recurring to 
the same subject, after speaking of the probable 
success of another measure, he says : " I enter- 
tain, however, no sanguine expectation of any- 
thing I hear in conversation, since the great 
majority against the plan of revenue, which, from 
conversations when I first arrived, I was led to 
believe would be adopted. Many now say the 
reading of the pamphlet of Congress determined 
them against the measure, disapproving the sen- 
timents conveyed in the letter to Rhode Island." 1 

This result could not but be attended with 
deep mortification to Mr. Madison, who, in all 
his correspondence with his friends in Virginia, 
evinced the profound interest he felt in the re- 
ception of the propositions of Congress by the 
legislature of his own State. His feelings, on 
being informed of the result, were briefly ex- 
pressed in a letter of the 24th of June to his 
friend and former colleague, Mr. Edmund Ran- 
dolph. 

1 Manuscript letter of Hon. Joseph Jones to Mr. Madison, June 14, 
1783 



FINAL SUPPORT OF VIRGINIA. 437 

"I was prepared," he said, "by Mr. Jones's late 
letters, for the fate to which the budget of Con- 
gress has been consigned ; but the circumstances 
under which it arrived here gave peculiar pun- 
gency to the information. I wish that those who 
abuse Congress and baffle their measures may as 
much promote the public good as they profess 
to intend. I am sure they will not do it more 
effectually than is intended by some, at least, of 
those who promote the measures of Congress." 

But this mortification and disappointment were 
happily of short duration. The legislature, when 
they reassembled a few months afterwards, had 
recovered from the unfavorable impressions which 
had their origin mainly in collateral and extrinsic 
circumstances ; and promptly passed an act for 
giving effect to the most important part of the 
recommendations of Congress. 1 They thus sig- 
nalized their loyalty to the obligations of national 
faith and honor, and at the same time justified 
the manly independence of their representative, 
who had so boldly and nobly risked himself for 
the right in opposition to temporary prejudice 
and delusion. 

NOTE. 

In a late publication, entitled, " History of the American Repub- 
lic, &c, by J. C. Hamilton," (see vol. n. pp. 398, 399,) a reckless 
charge is m?*de against Mr. Madison, of falsifying his reports of the 
proceedings of the Congress of 1782-3, with the special view of mis- 
representing the votes and opinions of Colonel Hamilton in that body. 
Could even the most prejudiced and embittered mind suppose Mr. 

1 Hen. Stat. vol. XI. pp. 350-352. 
37* 



438 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Madison capable of so great a baseness, it could hardly be imagined 
that lie would perpetrate the low and paltry crime without an adequate 
motive. But at the time when the reports in question were taken, and 
many years afterwards, as is shown by their correspondence, the most 
friendly personal relations, and, on some points, a cordial political coop- 
eration, existed between Mr. Madison and Colonel Hamilton. It can- 
not fail to be remarked also that, in most of the instances in which 
these falsifications, with the intent to misrepresent Colonel Hamilton, 
are charged, nothing is imputed to him but what would render his con- 
duct more meritorious, according to the views and opinions entertained 
by the reporter, and where, too, by the evidence furnished by the re- 
porter, no credit could be gained to himself at the expense of Colonel 
Hamilton. 

Take, for example, Mr. Madison's report of the proceedings on the 
proposition for the establishment of permanent and adequate general 
funds, in which he is accused of designing, by a false report, to place 
himself in priority of time to Colonel Hamilton in the suggestion of 
that proposition. It will be seen that Mr. Madison, in his " Debates," 
records the fact that the principle of the proposition was embodied in 
a report on the claims of the army made by Colonel Hamilton, and 
adopted by Congress three days before his own motion [Madison De- 
bates, vol. i. pp. 275-280] ; and again, the " Debates" show the dec- 
laration of Mr. Wilson, the mover of the proposition which was modified 
by Mr. Madison, that he had been led to bring forward his proposition 
by the previous action of Congress in favor of Colonel Hamilton's re- 
port. [Idem, p. 299.] 

That Mr. Madison has given a most faithful and accurate account of 
the successive phases and modifications through which the proposition 
was developed into the form in which it was finally adopted by Con- 
gress, is abundantly proved by the very minuteness of his report, day 
after day, of the proceedings upon it ; if, indeed, the intrinsic voucher 
of his own high and unassailable character could be supposed to stand 
in need of collateral support. 

It is nothing to the purpose to say, as the writer in question does, 
that the journals show no such resolution as that either of Mr. Wilson or 
Mr. Madison. It is well known that the general rule pursued in keep- 
ing the journals of the old Congress was not to record propositions un- 
til they were definitively acted upon in the House, and to take no note 
whatever of proceedings in committee of the whole. The journals 
show, in conformity to Mr. Madison's statement, that on the 29th of 
January, 1 783, Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole 



POSTHUMOUS ATTACK ON MR. MADISON. 439 

to consider the most effectual means of restoring and supporting public 
credit, and that the motion then before the House was referred to the 
committee. [Journals of Congress, vol. IV. p. 153.] It was in that 
committee that the proposition of Mr. Wilson, as new modelled by Mr. 
Madison, was acted upon and adopted [see Madison Debates, vol. I. 
pp. 302-304]; and on the 12th day of February following, it was 
taken up for consideration in the House, and there passed, as the. jour- 
nals show, in the precise form in which it is reported by Mr. Madison 
as having been agreed to in committee of the whole on the 29th of 
January. [Journals of Congress, vol. iv. p. 1(!0.] 

The writer referred to alleges, in contradiction of Mr. Madison's con- 
temporaneous report, that the motion attributed by Mr. Madison to 
Mr. Wilson was, in fact, offered by Colonel Hamilton, without any 
other proof of his assertion than a copy of a resolution taken, he says, 
from an autograph of Colonel Hamilton in the archives of the depart- 
ment of state. Even if the resolution in the handwriting of Colonel 
Hamilton corresponded exactly with the proposition which, Mr. Madi- 
son positively states, was introduced by Mr. Wilson, it would, by no 
means, prove that Colonel Hamilton, and not Mr. Wilson, offered it; 
but the resolution produced is shown by comparison not to be identi- 
cal, either with the proposition of Mr. Wilson or that finally adopted 
by Congress. It differs from the motion of Mr. Wilson by the intro- 
duction of a clause which, according to Mr. Madison's report, was 
added on the motion of Mr. Gorham, [Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 285, 
286,] and from the resolution as adopted by Congress in other and va- 
rious respects. 

These are in themselves matters of small importance, and would be 
altogether unworthy of the notice we have bestowed upon them, but 
for the use that has been attempted to be made of them to bolster up 
a charge of falsehood and misrepresentation against Mr. Madison. 

With regard to the proceedings of Congress in endeavouring to de- 
vise some satisfactory mode of arriving at a valuation of lands in the 
respective States as a basis of federal assessments, (the subject of 
another charge against Mr. Madison of misrepresenting Colonel Ham- 
ilton in his reports of the debates of Congress,) it is shown by incon- 
trovertible facts that Colonel Hamilton and Mr. Madison agreed in 
their opinions of the futility of those proceedings. They voted together 
against the abortive project that was adopted by a majority of Con- 
gre* ; and they also united in support of a new and different rule of 
apportionment which was very soon afterwards recommended to the 
States. [See Journals of Congress, vol. rv. pp. 163, 164, and 182, 



440 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

183.] If both he and Colonel Hamilton threw out tentative proposi* 
tions. neither of which was adopted, what possible motive could Mr. 
Madison have had for attributing to Colonel Hamilton any suggestion 
of that kind which he did not in reality make ? On the main point of 
the impracticability of establishing a reliable valuation of lands in the 
several States, let the reader refer to the strong language of Colonel 
Hamilton's letter to the governor of New York on the subject, [see it 
in History of the American Republic, vol. u. pp. 3G9-376,] and then 
say what ground there is for the charge brought against Mr. Madison 
of misrepresenting and misstating the opinions of Colonel Hamilton in 
that regard. 

There is one other instance in which this charge of falsification is 
brought against Mr. Madison, which we will briefly notice, and then 
dismiss the revolting theme. It relates to the proceedings of a grand 
committee of Congress, on the 7th of December, 1782, on the subject 
of compounding with the holders of the old depreciated continental 
paper money. It appears that all the members of the committee, with 
the exception of Mr. Carroll of Maryland, were agreed on the prin- 
ciple of some indemnification ; and that the only question was, as to 
the rate of depreciation at which the emissions should be redeemed. 

Various rates were proposed ; am<5ng others, 1 for 40, that being 
the rate at which Congress, by their resolution of the 18th of March, 
1 780, allowed the States to pay in their quotas to the federal treasury. 
That resolution, which was itself denounced at the time as a gross 
breach of the public faith, was insisted upon by some as pledging the 
public faith, in all future time, to redemption at the specified rate. On 
the other hand, it was regarded simnlv as recognizing and fixing the 
actual rate of depreciation at which, about the period of the resolution, 
the money had passed in ordinary transactions of business. But since 
that time, it had passed at far lower rates of depreciation, till it had 
ceased to circulate, and finally sunk almost to nothing. Under this 
view of the subject, but a single vote was given in favor of 1 for 40. 

Other rates were then put to the vote, — 1 for 75, 1 for 100, and 1 
for 150. Mr. Madison, in reporting the votes given in grand commit- 
tee on these several rates, represents Colonel Hamilton and Mr. Fitz- 
simmons as voting in favor of 1 for 100, — he himself not voting for 
any of the rates proposed, as " in many cases the money had changed 
hands at a value far below any rate that had been named." [Madison 
Debates, vol. I. pp. 226-228.] 

This writer, so lavish in his criminations of Mr. Madison, boldly pro- 
nounces the foregoing statement of the proceedings of the grand com- 



POSTHUMOUS ATTACK ON MR. MADISON. 441 

mittee to be " incorrect in all its parts," though he produces no state- 
ment of what those proceedings were ; and he charges that the " object" 
of the statement was " to represent Hamilton as voting in favor of a 
breach of faith." [History of the American Republic, vol. II. pp. 353- 
356.] Now, it is obvious to remark that, in the view of the reporter, 
there was no breach of faith in the vote imputed to Hamilton ; and the 
greater the rate of depreciation for which Hamilton had voted, the 
more praiseworthy the reporter would have considered the vote, as pro- 
tecting the public from the effect of unconscionable, if not fraudulent, 
speculations. 

The writer, finding from the journals that Congress acted on the 
subject of depreciation on the 7th of January, 1 783, arbitrarily and gra- 
tuitously confounds the proceedings of the House with the proceedings 
of the grand committee, and then accuses Mr. Madison of "altering" 
the date of those proceedings from the 7th of January to the 7th of 
December, and of representing the proceedings as having taken place 
in grand committee instead of the House, in order "to give color to 
his alteration of the date," and to escape the danger of contradiction 
by the journals, as he elsewhere says. [History of the American Re- 
public, vol. ii. p. 399.] 

It certainly does not follow as a matter of course, because the House 
acted on the report of the grand committee on the 7th of January, as 
the journals show, that the grand committee did not meet and deliber- 
ate on the subject of their report on the 7th of December preceding, 
as Mr. Madison states. The grand committee met also on the 24th of 
December ; and all the various rates of depreciation proposed at their 
previous meeting having then successively failed, it was finally agreed, 
at the last meeting, to report in favor of 1 for 40. [See Madison De- 
bates, vol. i. p. 239.] 

But upon the coming in of the report, Mr. Madison states, the chair 
decided that, according to rule, the blank should not have been filled 
up by the committee ; and so the rate was expunged. This, doubtless, 
led to the motion made by Colonel Hamilton in the House, when the 
report of the committee was taken up for consideration on the 7th of 
January, to fill the blank with the word " forty," that having been the 
final vote of the committee. The motion received the votes of only 
three States out of the twelve present, Colonel Hamilton's own State 
being divided [Journals of Congress, vol. iv. p. 142] ; and if the re- 
jection of 1 for 40 was a breach of public faith, as the writer alleges, 
it certainly met with a very large sanction for an act of national dis- 
honor. 



442 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

But the final and conclusive argument triumphantly brought forward 
by tlic writer against the truth of Mr. Madison's report is, that " Colo- 
nel Hamilton was not a member of the committee, and consequently 
could not have given the vote imputed to him by Madison, or any other 
vote." In support of this assertion, the writer refers to the Journal of 
Congress, which, in giving an account of the action of the body on the 
report of the grand committee on the 7th of January, professes to 
enumerate the names of the members of whom the committee con- 
sisted, and does not include among them that of Colonel Hamilton. 

The journal, in this enumeration, is evidently governed by the list 
of those who originally composed the committee, which had been raised 
during the [(receding Congress. That Colonel Hamilton was subse- 
quently put upon the committee, and was a member of it at the time 
to which Mr. Madison's statement relates, is sufficiently shown by other 
facts appearing upon the journal, as well as by the positive averment 
of Mr. Madison. A grand committee consisted, as its title imports, of 
a member from each State. Mr. Duane was the member of the com- 
mittee originally taken from New York, and his name appears as such 
among those given in the journal. The journal, however,- shows that 
he and his colleague, Mr. L'Hommedieu, obtained formal leave of ab- 
sence from Congress on the 27th of November, 1782, and that he did 
not resume his seat until the lGth day of July, 1783. [See Journals 
of Congress, vol. iv. pp. 110 and 239.] 

Some one must have been taken from New York to supply the place 
left vacant in the grand committee by his absence ; and who so likely 
to be chosen for the vacancy as Colonel Hamilton ? He came in, with 
a distinguished reputation, as a member of the new Congress that com- 
menced its term the first Monday in November, 1782, and took his 
seat in the body on the 25th of that month. Mr. Floyd, who took his 
seat two days later, was the only other member from New York pres- 
ent for several months after the departure of Messrs. Duane and 
L'llonimedieu. 

It is in the same manner that Mr. Madison became a member of the 
grand committee. His name does not appear among those enumerated 
in the journal, any more than that of Colonel Hamilton. The mem- 
ber there mentioned as being upon the grand committee from Virginia 
was Mr. Arthur Lee. But it is shown by the journal that he obtained 
leave of absence on the 4th of October, 1 782, and did not return until 
the 16th day of July, 1783, the day of Mi-. Duane's return. Mr. Mad- 
ison was, doubtless, put in his place, though no entry either of his ap- 
pointment or of that of Colonel Hamilton, appears upon the journal; 



POSTHUMOUS ATTACK ON MR. MADISON. 443 

which was kept, as is well known to all who have had occasion to look 
into our early congressional history, in a very loose and imperfect man- 
ner. If the silence of the journal is to be regarded as of any weight, 
it proves that no persons whatever were appointed to supply the places 
of Mr. Lee and Mr. Duane on the grand committee, for there is men- 
tion of none : but that is a supposition wholly inadmissible. 

We have thus, once for all, and with a revulsion of feeling which it 
is difficult to describe, noticed charges of the grossest and most offen- 
sive nature against one of the purest and most elevated characters that 
ever adorned humanity, — one "whose pure and spotless virtue," a 
great contemporary, who knew him well, has said, " no calumny has 
ever attempted to sully." We would fain indulge the hope that we 
might have spared ourselves this unwelcome task ; for who that cher- 
ishes the national reputation, who that has the slightest faith in the 
principles of truth and honor in the human breast, can seriously be- 
lieve that one who had so long and so conspicuously enjoyed the respect 
and veneration of his countrymen in places of the highest trust, could 
ever have been capable of the acts of baseness and falsehood with 
which he is now charged by a solitary accuser ? 



CHAPTER XV. 

Questions in Congress growing out of Cession of Northwest Terri- 
tory by Virginia — Influence of Land Companies — Geographical 
and political Combinations against the Claims of Virginia — Let- 
ters of Mr. Madison with Regard to them — Proceedings and Re- 
port of the Committee to which the Subject was referred — Attempt 
to set up adverse Title in New York — Researches and Labors of 
Mr. Madison in Defence of Virginia Title — Alliance between 
Adversaries of the territorial Rights of Virginia and Partisans of 
the Independence of Vermont — Mr. Madison's Account of the 
State of Parties in Congress on these two Questions — He pre- 
dicts the ultimate Acceptance of the Terms of Virginia, if the 
State remain firm and prudent — Mr. Witherspoon's Resolutions — 
New Committee appointed to consider Cession of Virginia — Re- 
monstrance of New Jersey — Design of Adversaries of Virginia to 
limit her Western Boundary, if possible, to the Alleghany Moun- 
tains — Final Compromise, and Acceptance of the Cession by Con- 
gress — Influence of Mr. Madison in accomplishing the Result — 
History of Vermont Question — Proceedings of Congress upon 
it — New York and New Hampshire resist Claim of Vermont to 
be considered an independent State — Views of Mr. Madison on 
the Subject — Powerful Combination of Interests in Congress fa- 
vorable to Independence of Vermont, and her Admission as a State 
into the Confederacy — Acts of Violence committed by her Author- 
ities prevent Consummation of the Plan — Compelled to await the 
regular Exercise of the Power granted by the Constitution of 
1788, before she is finally admitted into the Union. 



TERRITORIAL CESSION OF VIRGINIA. 445 

Among the important subjects which occupied 
the attention of Congress at this time, few were 
attended with more complications;, or exercised a 
more sensible influence on the reciprocal interests 
and relations of the States than the questions 
which grew out of the cession of her northwest- 
ern territory by Virginia. We have seen what 
jealousies had been excited in many of the States 
by the great extent of the limits of Virginia, as 
denned by her charter; and that, to quiet those 
jealousies, and to promote harmony and union, 
she had, on the 2d clay of January, 1781, prof- 
fered to Congress a cession of the whole of the 
territory claimed by her northwest of the river 
Ohio, embracing what are now five of the most 
prosperous and powerful States of the Union. 

To this munificent donation were annexed such 
conditions as appeared to her plainly just and 
equitable. Among them were the following : that 
she should be reimbursed the expenses incurred 
by her in conquering and defending the ceded 
territory during the war; that the French and 
other inhabitants, who had professed themselves 
citizens of Virginia, should be protected in the 
enjoyment of their rights and property ; that 
Colonel George Rogers Clarke, and the officers 
and soldiers who accompanied him in the expe- 
dition by w r hich the British posts in that country 
were reduced, should have a certain quantity of 
land laid off for them, in fulfilment of the prom- 
ises made to them by Virginia ; and also, if the 

VOL. I. 38 



446 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

quantity of good lands on the southeast side of 
the Ohio, which had been set apart by Virginia 
for her troops on continental and State estab- 
lishment, should prove insufficient to satisfy their 
legal bounties, the deficiency was to be made up 
to them in good lands to be laid off between the 
Scioto and the Miami on the northwest side of 
the Ohio. 

To these provisions of a special nature, were 
added stipulations of a more general character, 
which equally concerned the interests of all the 
States ; to wit, that the ceded territory should, in 
due time, be formed " into republican States " ; 
that all the unappropriated and ungranted lands 
within the same should be considered as "a com- 
mon fund for the use and benefit" of all the 
members of the confederacy, to be "faithfully 
and bond fide disposed of for that purpose, and 
for no other use or purpose whatsoever;" and, 
"consequently, that all purchases and deeds ob- 
tained from Indians, for the use and benefit of 
any private person or persons whatsoever, and 
royal grants, within the ceded territory, inconsistr 
ent with the chartered rights, laws, and customs 
of Virginia, be deemed and declared absolutely 
void and of no effect." Finally, in consideration 
of the immense extent and value of this cession, 
Virginia asked that her remaining territory should 
be guaranteed to her by the United States. 

It was to have been hoped that, whatever dis- 
satisfaction and jealousy had been previously 



CLAIMS OF LAND COMPANIES. 447 

raised in the minds of many of the other States 
by the superior territorial dimensions of Virginia, 
would have been at once allayed by this gener- 
ous offer to surrender so large a portion of her 
inheritance for the common good, and that the 
offer would have been promptly and cordially 
accepted by Congress. Such, unhappily, was not 
the spirit in which the proffered cession was met. 
The unfriendly jealousy of some of the other 
States exacted a yet larger sacrifice of her do- 
main- and hopes were entertained that by vex- 
atious delays, and devices of one kind or another, 
her limits might be ultimately restricted to the 
narrow boundary of the Alleghanies, which form 
the dividing ridge between the Eastern and 
Western waters. 

Cooperating with these feelings of State jeal- 
ousy and envy, were the interests of certain large 
and powerful land companies, embracing in their 
associations numerous and influential individuals 
in several of the States. The claims of these 
companies lay within the chartered limits of Vir- 
ginia, and had been acquired in open violation 
of her laws and territorial rights, as well as in 
opposition to the established usages and maxims 
of American public law respecting transactions 
with the aborigines. Forming as they would, if 
allowed, a very large subtraction from what was 
intended as a common and public fund for the 
benefit of the confederacy and the discharge of 
the national engagements, Virginia made it one 



448 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of the articles of her proffered cession that these 
claims should be considered, as they were in law, 
absolutely null and of no effect. Such a stipula- 
tion, of course, arrayed against the cession the in- 
terested hostility of the land companies and all 
who were connected with them. 

On the 31st of January, 1781, the cession of 
Virginia, together with cessions tendered by New 
York and Connecticut, was referred to a com- 
mittee of seven members. At a later day, it 
seems that these territorial cessions were recom- 
mitted to another committee of five, 1 to which 
were also committed memorials from the land 
companies. The new committee consisted of 
members taken from States, all of which, with a 
single exception, had signalized themselves by 
their vehement opposition to the territorial rights 
of Virginia; to wit, New Jersey, represented in 
the committee by Mr. Boudinot, Rhode Island 
by Mr. Varnum, Maryland by Mr. Jenifer, Penn- 
sylvania by Mr. Smith, and New Hampshire by 
Mr. Livermore. The hostile composition of the 
committee, as well as the ominous reference of 
the memorials of the land companies, significantly 
prefigured the character of the report that was 
to be expected from it. 

i The original appointment of mention of the members who com- 

this committee is nowhere noted posed it, is on the 1st of May, 1 782, 

on the journals of Congress. The when the report was taken up for 

first notice of its existence we meet consideration. Journals of Con- 

with in the journals is on the 16th gress, vol. IV. pp. 20-25. 
of October, 1781; and the first 



HOSTILE SPIRIT TOWARDS VIRGINIA. 449 

Mr. Madison, writing to Judge Pendleton on 
the 30th of October, 1781, gives the following 
account of the spirit of Congress and of the com- 
mittee on the subject : — 

a You are not mistaken in your apprehension 
for our Western interests. An agrarian law is 
as much coveted by the little members of the 
Union as ever it was by the indigent citizens of 
Rome. The conditions annexed by Virginia to 
her territorial cession have furnished a commit- 
tee of Congress a handle for taking up questions 
of right, both with respect to the ceding States 
and the great land companies, which they have 
not before ventured to touch. We have made 
every opposition and remonstrance to the con- 
duct of the committee which the forms of pro- 
ceeding will admit. When a report is made, we 
shall renew our efforts upon more eligible ground, 
but with little hope of arresting any aggression 
upon Virginia, which depends solely on the in- 
clination of Congress." 1 

It appears that the committee had given notice 
to the delegates of Virginia that, on a certain 
day, they should proceed to hear the agents of 
the land companies in support of their claims, 
and consequently in opposition to the title of 
the State. The delegates, considering that, under 
the articles of confederation, neither the commit- 
tee nor Congress itself had any jurisdiction to 
pass upon the title by which a State holds and 

1 Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 99, 100. 
38* 



450 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

claims the territory lying within her declared 
limits, — a position which she had impregnably 
assumed, as we have already seen, 1 by her re- 
monstrance to Congress of the 10th of Decem- 
ber, 1779, — and feeling, moreover, that it was a 
manifest "derogation from the sovereignty of a 
State to be drawn into a contest by an individual 
or company of individuals," very properly declined 
to appear before the committee upon the sum- 
mons addressed to them. They then appealed 
to Congress to arrest these irregular proceedings 
of the committee by an authoritative declaration 
of the legitimate extent of their powers ; but the 
appeal was made in vain. 2 

At length the committee, on the 3d day of 
November, 1781, made their report, which bore, 
to the fullest extent, all those features of intense 
jealousy and hostility towards Virginia which had 
been foreshadowed. They declare that "all the 
lands ceded, or pretended to be ceded, to the 
United States by the State of Virginia," are a 
part of the lands belonging to the Six Nations 
of Indians and their tributaries, the jurisdiction 
of which is appendant to the government of New 
York. They, therefore, recommend the acceptr 
ance of the cession of New York, as thereby 
"the jurisdiction of the whole Western territory, 
belonging to the Six Nations of Indians and their 
tributaries, will be vested in the United States, 

1 Ante, pp. 207, 208. 

2 Journal* uf Cou^reso, voL ill. pp. 676, 677, and 681 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 451 

greatly to the advantage of the Union." At the 
same time, they emphatically counsel the rejec- 
tion of the proffered cession of Virginia. 

They proceed to say, in regard to the lands 
reserved by Virginia on the southeast of the 
Ohio, that even they are "within the claim of 
New York, being a part of the country of the 
said Six Nations and their tributaries." In this 
connection, they disclose the bold but fondly 
cherished project of limiting the western exten- 
sion of Virginia by the Alleghany ridge of moun- 
tains; declaring that "a large part of the lands 
last aforesaid are to the west of the west boun- 
dary line of the late colony of Virginia as estab- 
lished by the King of Great Britain in council, 
previous to the present Revolution," and that "in 
1763 a very large part thereof was separated 
and appointed for a distinct government and Col- 
ony by the King, with the knowledge and appro- 
bation of the government of Virginia," 

A sweeping condemnation is then pronounced 
on the conditions annexed to the cession of Vir- 
ginia, as "incompatible with the honor, interests, 
and peace of the United States, and therefore, in 
the opinion of the committee, altogether inad- 
missible." Finally, Virginia is arrogantly called 
on, "as she values the peace, welfare, and in- 
crease of the United States," to reconsider her 
act of cession, and, by "a proper act for that 
purpose, cede to the United States all claims and 
pretensions of claims beyond a reasonable west 



452 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

em boundary, consistent with her former acts 
while a Colony under the power of Great Britain," 
and "free from any conditions and restrictions 
whatever." 1 

With regard to the land companies, they 
recommend the absolute confirmation of the 
claims of one of them, (the Indiana Company,) 
although those claims, lying exclusively within 
the limits of Virginia, had been declared " utterly 
void and of no effect" by a solemn decision of 
the legislature of that State, after a deliberate 
hearing of several days in the presence of both 
Houses ; 2 and in relation to another of the com- 
panies, (the Vandalia,) whose claim amounted to 
a thorough territorial dismemberment of the same 
State, the committee, while declining, on account 
of the overshadowing magnitude of the claim, to 
recommend its formal confirmation, yet treated 
it as an equitable one, and proposed to grant to 
such of the claimants as are citizens of the United 
States, "a full and ample reimbursement" out 
of the very lands which were the subject of the 
claim. 

The attempt to set up a claim of territorial 
jurisdiction for the State of New York beyond 
her chartered limits, founded upon the alleged 
patronage of certain nomad tribes of Indians, 
and a claim of ownership and dominion for those 
Indians over lands comprehended within the char- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 2 Journal of House of Delegates, 
pp. 21-24. May session, 1779, pp. 39, 40. 



GROUNDS OF VIRGINIA CLAIM. 



453 



tered limits of another State, was so entirely con- 
trary not only to reason, but to principles of 
jurisprudence well settled before, as since, the 
Revolution, 1 that it can be attributed only to a 
predetermination to oust Virginia, at all hazards, 
of her territorial rights. 2 



1 See Chalmers's Annals, p. G77, 
and ease of Johnson v. Mcintosh. 

2 The grounds on which the ter- 
ritorial rights of Virginia had been 
hitherto assailed, were, 1. The al- 
leged vagueness and uncertainty 
in the description of limits in the 
charter of 1609, under which she 
claimed ; 2. The subsequent an- 
nulment of that charter in the 
controversy between the London 
Company and the crown ; 3. The 
virtual establishment of a new 
boundary to the west by the royal 
proclamation of 1763; and 4. The 
devolution of the rights of the 
crown to vacant territory upon the 
United States collectively, and not 
upon the individual States, after 
the Declaration of Independence. 
It was upon these several proposi- 
tions that Paine, the author of 
" Common Sense," undertook in 
1780, previous to the cession of 
Virginia, to controvert her claims 
in a pamphlet, which he entitled 
the " Public Good." 

On the other hand, Virginia in- 
sisted, 1. That her chartered lim- 
its were plainly and sufficiently 
defined by designated parallels of 
latitude, and lines of sea-coast to 
the east and the west ; 2. That the 
annulment of the charter of 1609 
affected only the rights of the Lon- 



don Company, and not those of 
the beneficiary party, the Colo- 
nists ; 3. That the proclamation of 
1763 had no other object or effect 
than to suspend, for a time, grants 
of land on the Western waters, 
leaving the chartered rights and 
limits of the colony untouched ; 
and 4. That it was an incontesta- 
ble principle of American public 
law that the territorial sovereignty, 
within the chartered limits of the 
different Colonies, devolved, after 
the Revolution, upon the States 
severally, and not upon the confed- 
eracy. 

Upon all these points, judicial 
decisions, since pronounced by the 
highest tribunals of the country, as 
well as the ultimate acceptance of 
her cession by Congress in the 
form (essentially) in which she ten- 
dered it, have fully sustained and 
justified the claims of Virginia. 
The conjured-up title of New York, 
after it had served the purposes of 
its momentary apparition, seems 
never to have been thought of se- 
riously since. It is a painful evi- 
dence, however, of the tenacity of 
old political prejudices and contro- 
versies, that a committee of Con- 
gress, as late as 1842, should have 
undertaken to call in question the 
original title of Virginia, upon the 



454 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Mr. Madison, in writing to Mr. Jefferson, then 
a member of the legislature of Virginia, a few 
days after the coming in of this report, speaks 
of it in the following terms : — 

"By the conveyance through which you will 
receive this, the delegates have communicated to 
the State the proceedings in Congress to which 
the territorial cessions have given birth. The 
complexion of them will, I suppose, be somewhat 
unexpected, and produce no small irritation. 
They clearly speak the hostile machinations of 
some of the States against our territorial claims, 
and afford suspicions that the predominant tem- 
per of Congress may coincide with them. It is 
proper to recollect, however, that, the report of 
the committee having not yet been taken into 
consideration, no certain inference can be drawn 
as to its issue ; and that the report itself is not 
founded on the obnoxious doctrine of an inher- 
ent right in the United States to the territory 
in question, but on the expediency of cloth- 
ing them with the title of New York, which is 
supposed to be maintainable against all others. 

The committee was composed of a 

member from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jer- 
sey, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, all of 
which States, except the last, are systematically 

exploded grounds of Paine's pain- torious answer to this report was 

phlet. See Report of Select Com- made by the committee on public 

mittee of the House of Represen- lands, in the 1st session of 28th 

tatives, 2d session, 27th Congress, Congress, Rep. No. 457. 
Rep. No. 1063. An able and vie- 



MR. MADISON'S DEFENCE OF HER TITLE. 455 

and notoriously adverse to the claims of Western 
territory, and particularly those of Virginia." 1 

Mr. Madison, feeling that, however little hope 
there might be of arresting these aggressions 
upon her rights, Virginia owed it to her own 
character and the opinion of the world to set 
forth the evidence of her title, with the clearness 
of which it was susceptible, invoked the cooper- 
ation of Mr. Jefferson and other able professional 
friends at home, in searching for and collecting 
the various legal and historical documents on 
which it rested. The severe domestic affliction 
which soon after fell upon Mr. Jefferson pre- 
vented his aid ; and other causes interfering with 
the contributions of the other learned friends to 
whom he had appealed, Mr. Madison was left 
almost wholly to his own resources of industry 
and intrinsic force of mind, (for he was then no 
lawyer,) to sustain the rights of Virginia against 
the host of her assailants. His correspondence 
of that period shows how successfully he had 
mastered all the difficulties of a question belong- 
ing essentially to the department of technical 
and professional knowledge ; and how, under the 
modest guise of seeking information from others, 
he supplied them with every element, both of 
principle and fact, necessary for its solution. 2 

1 Madison Debates and Corre- Debates and Correspondence, vol. 
spondence, vol. I. pp. 102, 103. i. pp. 106-109 and 119-122 ; and 

2 See particularly his letters of to Mr. Edmund Randolph of the 
15th of January and 16th of April, 9th of April and 13th of August. 
1782, to Mr. Jefferson, in Madison 1782, in Idem, pp. 118, 159, 160. 



456 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The report of the committee was not taken up 
for consideration in Congress until the 1st of 
May, 1782. The delegates of Virginia determined 
then to press for a final decision upon the ces- 
sion proffered by the State ; but sensible how 
much that decision might be influenced by the 
interests of the land companies, they moved, as 
a preliminary question, that, previous to any de- 
termination in Congress relative to the cessions 
of the Western lands, each member do declare 
upon his honor whether he is or is not person- 
ally interested, directly or indirectly, in the claims 
of any of the land companies; and that his dec- 
laration be entered on the Journal. This motion 
was parried ; and finally, on the 6th day of May, 
the farther consideration of the report was, upon 
the motion of a delegate from Pennsylvania, and 
against the remonstrances of the delegates from 
Virginia, postponed. 1 

The General Assembly of the State met soon 
after these proceedings in Congress ; and then, 
for the first time, the report of the committee, 
with the proceedings of Congress upon it, was 
laid before them. It naturally excited a warm 
and indignant feeling. Among other measures 
adopted, a committee was appointed, consisting 
of Mr. George Mason, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Arthur 
Lee, Mr. Edmund Eandolph, and Dr. Thomas 
Walker, to prepare a full and detailed vindica- 
tion of the claims of Virginia to her Western 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. IV. pp. 20 and 26. 



GEOGRAPHICAL ARRAY OF PARTIES. 457 

territory; 1 but it does not appear that llie 
task was ever executed by the committee. Mr. 
Madison still continued to give his earnest and 
persevering attention to the subject. In some 
instructive " observations " recorded by him at the 
time, (1st of May, 1782,) he has shown how 
large an influence this question, together with 
the kindred one of Vermont, to which we shall 
presently have occasion to advert, exerted on the 
state of parties in Congress at that period. 

The following extract from that paper will in- 
dicate how powerful was the combination against 
the cause, which it devolved upon him to sus- 
tain. 

"The territorial claims, particularly those of 
Virginia," he there says, "are opposed by Rhode 
Island, New Jersey, Pensylvania, Delaware, and 
Maryland. Rhode Island is influenced in her 
opposition by, first, a lucrative desire of sharing 
in the vacant territory as a fund of revenue : 
secondly, by the envy and jealousy naturally 
excited by superior resources and importance. 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Mary- 
land are influenced partly by the same con- 
siderations ; but principally by the intrigues of 
their citizens, who are interested in the land 
companies. The decisive influence of this last 
consideration is manifest from the peculiar and 
persevering opposition made against Virginia, 
within whose limits those claims lie." 

1 Manuscript letter of E. Randolph to J. Madison, 21st of June, 1782. 
vol. i. 39 



458 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

The paper then proceeds to show how Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, — mainly by the inter- 
est they felt in the Vermont question, — were 
joined to this compact phalanx against the ter- 
ritorial claims of Virginia, and of some of the 
other States ; and concludes with the following 
survey of the comparatively feeble forces, in num- 
ber at least, arrayed on the other side. 

'•' The Western claims are espoused by Virginia, 
North and South Carolina, Georgia, and New 
York, all of these States being interested therein. 
South Carolina is the least so. The claim of 
New York is very extensive, but her title very 
flimsy. She urges it more with the hope of ob- 
taining some advantage or credit by its cession, 
than of ever maintaining it. If this cession 
should be accepted, and the affair of Vermont 
terminated, as these are the only ties which unite 
her with the Southern States, she will immedi- 
ately connect her policy with that of the Eastern 
States ; so far, at least, as the remains of former 
prejudice will permit." l 

Notwithstanding- the fearful odds against Vir- 
ginia in this geographical array of parties, Mr. 
Madison did not despair of ultimate success. "If 
the State is firm and prudent," he said in a let- 
ter to a friend, written about the same time, 
"I have little doubt that she will be again 

• 

courted." 2 

1 See Madison Debates and 2 Letter to E. Randolph, in 
Correspondence, vol. I. pp. 123, Madison Debates and Correspond- 
124. ence, vol. i. p. 126. 



PROPOSITION OF MR. WITHERSPOON. 459 

The subject next came up in Congress, on the 
5th and 6th of September, 1782, upon the report 
of a grand committee, declaring that " the West- 
ern lands, if ceded to the United States, might 
contribute towards a fund for paying the debt 
of these States." 1 One of the delegates of Vir- 
ginia, Mr. Bland, moved, as an amendment and 
corollary to this proposition, that the cessions 
already tendered be accepted by Congress, with 
the conditions therein named. This gave rise to 
a wide discussion on the whole range of topics 
connected with the question. 2 

Finally, Mr. Witherspoon of New Jersey moved 
a set of resolutions, recommending to the States 
which had made no cessions, now to act upon 
the subject, and to those, whose cessions were 
not fully conformable to the wishes of Congress, 
to reconsider their acts ; and declaring that, " in 
case of a compliance with the above recommen- 
dation, no determinations of the particular States, 
relating to private property of lands within those 
cessions, shall be reversed or altered without 
their consent, unless in such cases as the ninth 
article of the confederation shall render it neces- 
sary." This last resolution related to the obnox- 
ious claims of the land companies, and was 
plainly a concession held out to the demands of 
Virginia, The proposition of Mr. Witherspoon 
was immediately taken into consideration, and 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 2 Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 
pp. 68, 69. 166-168. 



460 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

referred to a committee consisting of himself, 
Mr. Madison, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina, 
Mr. Osgood of Massachusetts, and Mr. Montgom- 
ery of Pennsylvania. 

It would seem that the intimate relations of 
Mr. Madison with his venerable and distinguished 
preceptor, the mover of the proposition and the 
chairman of the committee, must have influenced 
the latter to engage in this work of conciliation ; 
for no State in the confederacy was more vio- 
lently opposed to all the views of Virginia on 
the subject of 'Western territory than that which 
Dr. Witherspoon represented. However this may 
be, it was a touching and noble spectacle to see 
the pupil and the preceptor, representing discord- 
ant interests and views as they did, thus closely 
associated, as members of the same committee, in 
the sublime office of national peacemakers. On 
the 25th of September, 1782, the committee 
made their report, recommending the adoption 
of Dr. Witherspoon's proposition in the very words 
in which he had offered it. The temper of Con- 
gress, however, was not yet ripe for compromise, 
and the proposition was rejected. 1 

The next step in the history of this thorny 
and complicated question was the naked accept- 
ance by Congress, on the 29th of October, 1782, 
upon the motion of the delegates of Maryland, 
of " all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction, and 
claim of the State of New York, as ceded by 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. pp. 82, 83. 



REMONSTRANCE OF NEW JERSEY. 461 

and contained in an instrument of writing exe- 
cuted by her agents for that purpose." 1 

The matter seems then to have rested, with 
regard to the cession of Virginia, until the 4th 
of June, 1783, when the consideration of the re- 
port of the committee of the 3d of November, 
1781, was resumed; and so much of it as related 
to the cession of Virginia was referred to another 
committee, consisting of Mr. Rutledge of South 
Carolina, Mr. Bedford of Delaware, Mr. Carroll 
of Maryland, Mr. Higginson of Massachusetts, and 
Mr. Wilson of Pennsylvania. 2 

This committee made a report, favorable in 
the main to the acceptance of the cession ten- 
dered by Virginia, 3 which was taken up for con- 
sideration on the 10th of June, 1783. After a 
debate, which disclosed two changes in the state 
of parties, which Mr. Madison had anticipated, (to 
wit, the opposition of New York, 4 and the acces- 
sion of Massachusetts and Connecticut,) the far- 
ther consideration of the report was postponed 
until the 20th of the same month. On that day, 
a violent remonstrance was presented and read 
from the legislature of New Jersey, denouncing 
the cession of Virginia "as partial, unjust, and 
illiberal," accusing her of an unworthy attempt 
to "aggrandize herself by the detention of prop- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. IV. 4 On this occasion, Col. Ilarail- 
p. 100. ton "asserted the right of the Uni- 

2 Idem, pp. 226, 227. ted States" to the vacant territory. 

3 See Madison Debates and Madison Debates, vol. i. pp. 458, 
Correspondence, vol. i. p. 543. 459. 

39* 



462 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

erty which had been procured by the common 
blood and treasure of all the States," and ear- 
nestly calling upon Congress to reject the ces- 
sion. 1 

In the course of the discussion, one of the del- 
egates of New Jersey, Mr. Clark, vehemently 
declared that " the time would yet come when 
Congress would draw a line limiting the States to 
the westward, and saying thus far shall ye go, and 
no farther." Mr. Madison also records that, "from 
several circumstances, there was reason to believe 
that Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Delaware, if not Maryland likewise, retained 
latent views of confining Virginia to the Alle- 
ghany Mountains." He adds that, "there being 
seven States only present, and the spirit of com- 
promise decreasing," no vote was taken on the 
subject. 2 The next day, Congress, which, for two 
days past, had been sitting in the midst of a 
mutinous demonstration of a band of soldiers, 
adjourned from Philadelphia to Princeton. 

On the 13th clay of September, 1783, at the 
latter place, the cession of Virginia was again 
brought before Congress, on the report of a com- 
mittee consisting of Mr. Rutledge of South Car- 
olina, Mr. Ellsworth of Connecticut, Mr. Bedford 
of Delaware, Mr. Gorham of Massachusetts, and 
Mr. Madison. Of the eight conditions annexed 
by Virginia to her cession, they reported that 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. 3 Madison Debates, voL. L pp 
IV. p. 231. 463-465. 



FINAL ACCEPTANCE OF CESSION. 463 

the first six were, in their opinion, just and rea- 
sonable, in the precise form in which they were 
proposed, and ought to be agreed to by Congress. 

With regard to the seventh condition, which 
appealed to Congress to declare the claims of 
the land companies to be "absolutely void and 
of no effect," they reported that it would not, in 
their judgment, be proper for Congress to make 
such a declaration; but that the sixth condition, 
the acceptance of which they had recommended, 
in providing that the ceded lands were to be " a 
common fund for the benefit of the confederacy," 
and that " they should be faithfully and bond fide 
disposed of for that purpose, and for no other 
use or purpose whatever," was a sufficient com- 
pliance with the demands of Virginia on that 
point. 

As to the eighth and last condition, by which 
Virginia proposed a guarantee of her remaining 
territory, the committee were of opinion that 
such a guarantee presupposed a discussion of the 
question of title, which the acts of Congress on 
the subject expressly disclaimed; and that the 
territorial rights of a State, whatever they were, 
were effectually guaranteed by the articles of 
confederation. With these modifications alone, if 
assented to by the legislature of Virginia, the 
committee recommended that her cession be ac- 
cepted, in all other respects, upon the terms on 
which she had offered it. 1 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. pp. 265-267. 



464 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

On the question to agree to the report of the 
committee;, the delegates of Maryland, resisting 
to the last, moved a substitute which affirmed 
the sovereign right of the United States as one 
undivided and independent nation, succeeding to 
the rights of the British crown, to possess the 
whole of the Western territory ; and farther pro- 
posed that the said territory be laid off into one 
or more convenient States, and that a federal 
land-office be established for the disposal of the 
soil. Maryland and New Jersey alone voted in 
favor of the substitute ; and the report of the 
committee was finally agreed to by the votes of 
eight States out of the eleven present. 1 

Thus was closed, at last, the tedious and ex- 
citing controversy which had so long distracted 
the councils of Congress, and the burden and 
responsibilities of which had weighed so heavily 
upon Mr. Madison during the whole period of 
his service in that body. That it was finally 
brought to a consummation, consistent alike with 
the honor and rights of the ceding State and the 
general good of the confederacy, through so 
many opposing barriers of local and political 
prejudice, and of powerful private interests, was 
due, in an especial manner, to the firmness, pru- 
dence, vigilance, and ability he displayed in 
every stage of the protracted struggle. 

In announcing the. result to his friends, Mr. 
Jefferson and Mr. Randolph, which he did by let- 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. IV. pp. 263-265, and 267 



VERMONT CONTROVERSY. 4G5 

ters addressed to both on the same day, (the 
20th of September, 1783,) he confined himself to 
a brief expression of " his sincere hope that it 
would meet the ultimatum of Virginia." 1 That 
sanction — the object of his solicitude and the 
reward of his labors — it received in an act of 
the legislature passed in the ensuing month, 
which authorized a deed to be made for the ter- 
ritory northwest of the Ohio, in pursuance of 
the terms of cession agreed upon ; and that deed 
was, on the 1st day of March, 1784, signed, 
sealed, and delivered in Congress by Thomas 
Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James 
Monroe, then the representatives of the State in 
the national council. 2 

It is now proper to give our attention to the 
question of Vermont, — a question which, for a 
lengthened period, occupied the deliberations of 
Congress, was connected, by various relations, 
with the territorial claims of Virginia, and, for 
a time, exercised an important influence upon 
their progress and reception. 

The bold mountain region west of the river 
Connecticut, and stretching thence to the borders 
of Lake Champlain, had become known to the 
hardy yeomanry of New England in the war of 
1756 with France ; and immediately after the 
close of that war, it began to be settled by 

1 Madison Debates and Corre- Stat. vol. xi. pp. 326-328, and 
spondence, vol. i. pp. 572 and 574. Deed of Cession, Idem, pp. 571- 
8 See Act of Assembly in Hen. 575. 



466 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

adventurers from the neighbouring States. The 
original settlements were made under grants ob- 
tained from the Colony of New Hampshire, from 
which circumstance the district itself bore, for 
many years, the name of the "New Hampshire 
Grants." 

The Colony of New York, at the same time, 
claimed the ownership and dominion over it, as 
being included within the limits of the royal 
grant to the Duke of York, and, in 1764, ob- 
tained an order of the king and council, placing 
the country, as far east as Connecticut River, 
under its jurisdiction. This was done, however, 
without the consent, and in opposition to the 
wishes of the inhabitants of the district, a major- 
ity of whom steadily refused to acknowledge the 
authority of New York. The conflicting claims of 
the two adjacent Colonies giving them a good 
excuse for rejecting the pretensions of both, they 
finally set up as a separate and distinct commu- 
nity. At the Revolution, they declared them- 
selves independent; and in 1777 they organized 
a de facto government of their own. 

In this state of things, the subject seems to 
have been first brought to the notice of Con- 
gress on the 22d of May, 1779, by certain reso- 
lutions moved by the delegates of New York, 
invoking the interposition of Congress, and affirm- 
ing that " no part or district of one or more of 
the States shall be permitted to separate there- 
from, or become independent thereon, without 



INTERPOSITION OF CONGRESS. 467 

the express consent and approbation of such 
State or States respectively." ! These resolutions 
were not acted on; but on the 2d of June, 1779, 
a committee was appointed to repair to the New 
Hampshire Grants, and "inquire into the reasons 
why the inhabitants refuse to continue citizens of 
the respective States, which heretofore exercised 
jurisdiction over them." 2 

A. majority of the committee not having met 
to perform the duty assigned to them, they were 
discharged from its farther prosecution by a res- 
olution adopted on the 24th of September, 1779. 
On that day, a series of resolutions was unan- 
imously adopted by Congress, which, — after recite 
ing that "the animosities aforesaid have lately 
proceeded so far, and risen so high, as to endan- 
ger the internal peace of the confederacy, and 
to render it indispensably necessary for Congress 
to interpose for the restoration of quiet and 
good order," and that in the disputes subsisting 
between the adjacent States on the one hand, 
and the people of the disturbed district on the 
other, "each of the said States claim the said 
district against each other, as well as against the 
people of the district," — recommend that the States 
in question pass laws expressly authorizing Con- 
gress to hear and determine all differences, as 
well between themselves as between them and 
the said district, and pledge the faith of Congress 
"to carry into execution, and support whatever 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. hi. pp. 285, 286. 2 Hem, p. 297. 



468 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

determination " they may come to in the prem- 
ises, and for whichsoever of the parties it may 
be pronounced. 

In the mean time, they declare it to be the 
" duty of the jDeople of the district to abstain from 
exercising any power over any of the inhabitants 
who profess themselves to be citizens of, or to 
owe allegiance to, any or either of the said 
States ; " and also that these States, in like man- 
ner, ought " to suspend executing their laws " 
over any of the inhabitants of the district, except 
such as acknowledge their jurisdiction ; and, fi- 
nally, they declare that " Congress will consider 
any violences committed against the tenor of 
these resolutions as a breach of the peace of the 
confederacy, which they are determined to keep 
and maintain." 1 

On the 19th of September, 1780, a hearing 
took place before Congress, for the first time, on 
the disputes between the inhabitants of the " New 
Hampshire Grants " on the one hand, and the 
States of New York and New Hampshire on the 
other, as well as between those two States re- 
spectively on the subject of their mutually inter- 
fering claims. Two persons attended on behalf 
of the people of the district in controversy, ex- 
hibiting a commission signed by the acting gov- 
ernor or president, and under a seal, styled the 
"Seal of the State of Vermont." 2 

Mr. Madison, writing to his colleague, Mr. Jones, 

* Journals of Congress, vol. m. pp. 365-367. 2 idem, pp. 520, 521. 



OPINIONS OF MR. MADISON. 469 

on the same day, speaks of these proceedings in 
the following manner: — 

"The Vermont business has been two days 
under agitation, and nothing done in it, except 
rejecting a proposition for postponing the deter- 
mination of Congress till commissioners should 
inquire into the titles and boundaries of New 
Hampshire and New York. Congress have bound 
themselves so strongly by their own act to bring 
it to an issue at this time, and are pressed by 
New York so closely with this engagement, that 
it is not possible any longer to try evasive ex- 
pedients. For my own part, if a final decision 
must take place, I am clearly of opinion that it 
ought to be made on principles that will effectu- 
ally discountenance the erection of new govern- 
ments without the sanction of proper authority, 
and in a style marking a due firmness and de- 
cision in Congress." * 

After a continued hearing of several days, 
from which, however, the agents of Vermont at 
last withdrew, 2 Congress postponed the farther 
consideration of the subject, without coming to 
any decision. At the time when the foregoing 
letter was written, it expressed, it is probable, 
not only Mr. Madison's personal opinions, but the 
prevailing sentiment in Congress. The agents 
and partisans of Vermont, however, still contin- 
ued to push their interests, more or less openly, 

1 Madison Debates and Corre- 2 See Journals of Congress, vol 
Bpondence, vol. i. pp. 52, 53. in. p. 526. 

VOL. i. 40 



470 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

in that body. There was too obvious a bond of 
sympathy between them and the opponents of 
the territorial claims of Virginia to be overlooked. 
Mr. Madison, in a letter to Mr. Edmund Ran- 
dolph of the 1st of May, 1781, says: "The sub- 
ject of Vermont has not yet been called up. 
Their agents, and those of the land-mongers 
are playing, with great adroitness, into each 
others' hands. Mr. Jones will explain this game 
to you." 1 

There were yet other and more pressing con- 
siderations which added strength to their cause. 
The frequent and violent conflicts between the 
rival authorities in the disputed territory could 
not but attract the attention and excite the 
hopes and intrigues of the common enemy. In- 
sidious overtures were made to the inhabitants 
of the district, which some of their leaders, it was 
believed, were disposed to incline too favorable 
an ear to. Under these circumstances, a number 
of persons, both in and out of Congress, began 
to think that the best security against this source 
of division and danger was to acknowledge the 
claims of the district to a separate and indepen- 
dent existence, and to admit it as a new State 
into the confederacy. 

On the 7th of August, 1781, a committee consist- 
ing of Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, Mr. McKean 
of Pennsylvania, Mr. Carroll of Maryland, Mr. 
Varnum of Rhode Island, and Mr. Madison, (it is 

1 Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 92. 



CONGRESS FAVORS CAUSE OF VERMONT. 471 

obvious, from the composition of the committee, 
that Mr. Madison's voice must have been wholly 
drowned in it,) made a report, which, — after briefly 
mentioning that the States of New York and New 
Hampshire had been already heard before Congress 
on their respective claims to jurisdiction over " the 
people inhabiting the New. Hampshire Grants," 
and that " the people aforesaid claim and ex- 
ercise the powers of a sovereign, independent 
State, and desire to be admitted into the federal 
Union of the United States of America," — recom- 
mends, " in order thereto, and that they may have 
an opportunity of being heard in vindication 
of their claim," that a committee of five be ap- 
pointed to confer with such persons as may be 
chosen by the people of that district, or by 
their representative body, respecting their claim 
to be an independent State, and on what terms 
they should be admitted into the confederacy, 
in case Congress should recognize their inde- 
pendence. 

This report was adopted ; and on the following 
day a committee, precisely similar in its elements 
to the preceding one, but not composed of the 
same individuals, 1 was appointed to hold the pro- 
posed conference with such persons as may be 
deputed by the people or representatives of Ver- 
mont. It then appeared that agents, duly com- 

1 The new committee consisted gomery of Pennsylvania, and Mr. 

of Mr. Boudinot of New Jersey, Randolph of Virginia. Journals 

Mr. Vandyke of Delaware, Mr. of Congress, vol. in. p. 656. 
Carroll of Maryland, Mr. Mont- 



472 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

missioned on the part of Vermont, were already 
in attendance. After a conference with these 
agents, the committee, on the 20th of August, 
delivered in their report; upon which Congress 
adopted a resolution declaring that "it be an in- 
dispensable preliminary to the recognition of the 
independence of the- people inhabiting the terri- 
tory called Vermont, and their admission into 
the Federal Union, that they explicitly renounce 
all demands of lands on the east side of Con- 
necticut River, and. on the west side of a line 
running from the northwest corner of the State 
of Massachusetts" to the southern extremity of 
Lake Champlain ; and that the United States will 
guarantee to the States of New Hampshire and 
New York all the adjacent lands, lying on the 
east and west side of the aforesaid limits respec- 
tively, against any claims or encroachments of the 
inhabitants of Vermont. 

These proceedings plainly indicated the "fore- 
gone conclusion " of Congress to admit the inhab- 
itants of Vermont as a separate State into the 
confederacy, on the terms specified. They fur- 
nish abundant confirmation, at the same time, of 
the curious state of parties in Congress described 
by Mr. Madison in his memorandum of the 1st 
of May, 1782, to which reference has already 
been made, — showing that it was the same alli- 
ance between the Eastern and Middle States, 
founded on temporary and accidental causes, 
which stood opposed to the territorial rights of 



TERMS OFFERED BY CONGRESS. 



473 



Virginia and which patronized the claims of Ver- 
mont. 1 

Facile and liberal as were the terms offered 
by Congress to the inhabitants of Vermont, they 
were at first unceremoniously rejected by these 
"turbulent sons of freedom," — so called by one 
of the noblest of their own kindred. 2 The fol- 



1 The array of parties here al- 
luded to is thus described by Mr. 
Madison, in his memorandum of 
the 1st of May, 1782: — 

" The independence of Vermont, 
and its admission into the confed- 
eracy, arc patronized by the East- 
ern States, (New Hampshire ex- 
cepted.) 1. From ancient preju- 
dice against New York ; 2. The 
interest which the citizens of those 
States have in lands granted by 
Vermont; 3. But principally from 
the accession of weight they will 
derive from it in Congress. New 
Hampshire, having gained its main 
object by the exclusion of its ter- 
ritory east of Connecticut River 
from the claims of Vermont, is al- 
ready indifferent to its independ- 
ence, and will probably soon com- 
bine with other Eastern States in 
its favor. 

" The same patronage is yielded 
to the pretensions of Vermont by 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, with 
the sole view of reinforcing the 
opposition to claims of Western 
territory, particularly those of Vir- 
ginia ; and by New Jersey and 
Delaware, with the additional view 
of strengthening the influence of 
the little States. Both of these 

40* 



considerations operate also on 
Rhode Island, in addition to the 
above mentioned. 

" The independence of Vermont, 
and its admission into the Union, 
are opposed by New York for rea- 
sons obvious and well known. The 
like opposition is made by Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Georgia. The grounds of this 
opposition are, 1. An habitual jeal- 
ousy of the predominance of East- 
ern interest ; 2. The opposition 
expected from Vermont to West- 
ern claims; 3. The inexpediency 
of admitting so unimportant a State 
to an equal vote in deciding on 
peace, and all the other grand in- 
terests of the Union now depend- 
ing ; 4. The influence of the ex- 
ample on a premature dismember- 
ment of the other States. These 
considerations influence the four 
States last mentioned in different 
degrees. The second and third, to 
say nothing of the fourth, ought to 
be decisive with Virginia." See 
Madison Debates and Correspond- 
ence, vol. i. pp. 122, 123. 

2 See letter of General Stark 
to Washington, in Sparks's Wash- 
ington, vol. viii. p. 83. 



474 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

lowing history of the matter is given in a letter 
of Mr. Madison to Judge Pendleton of the 22d 
of January, 1782. 

" Congress are much occupied and perplexed 
at present with the case of Vermont. The pre- 
tensions of that settlement to the character of 
an independent State, with the grounds on which 
they are made, and the countenance given them 
by Congress, are, I presume, pretty well known 
to you. It has long been contended that an ex- 
plicit acknowledgment of that character, and an 
admission of them into the Federal Union, was 
an act both of justice and policy. The discovery 
made through several channels, and particularly 
the intercepted letters of Lord George Germain, 
added such force to the latter of these consider- 
ations that, in the course of the last summer, 
preliminary overtures were made, on the part of 
Congress, for taking them into the confederation, 
containing, as one condition on the part of Ver- 
mont, that they should contract their claims 
within the bounds to which they were originally 
confined, and guaranteeing to New York and 
New Hampshire all the territory without those 
bounds, to which their encroachments had been 
extended. 

" Instead of complying with this condition, they 
have sone on in their encroachments both on 
the New York and New Hampshire sides; and 
there is, at this moment, every symptom of ap- 
proaching hostility with each of them. In this 



ANOTHER LETTER OF MR. MADISON. 475 

delicate crisis, the interposition of Congress is 
again called for, and, indeed, seems to be indis- 
pensable; but whether in the way of military 
coercion, or a renewal of former overtures, or by 
making the first a consequence of the refusal of 
the last, is not so unanimously decided. 

'• Indeed, with several members, and I may say 
States, in Congress, a power either to decide on 
their independence, or to open the door of the 
confederacy to them, is utterly disclaimed ; be- 
sides which, the danger of the precedent, and 
the preponderancy it would give to the Eastern 
scale, deserve serious consideration. These rea- 
sons, nevertheless, can only prevail when the 
alternative contains fewer evils. It is very un- 
happy that such plausible pretexts, if not neces- 
sary occasions, of assuming power should occur 
Nothing is more distressing to those who have 
a true respect for the constitutional modifica- 
tions of power, than to be obliged to decide on 
them." 2 

1 Under the articles of confed- Colony, exterior to the then exisfr- 
eration, it seems quite clear that ing territorial limits of the United 
Congress possessed no power to States,) should be admitted into 
admit Vermont as a new State into the same, unless agreed to by nine 
the confederacy. There was a spe- States. The ablest commentators 
cial provision in those articles that of the time assert that the eventual 
Canada, by acceding to the con- establishment of new States, within 
federation and joining in the meas- the original limits of the United 
ures of Congress, should, ipso fac- States, was overlooked by the fram- 
to, be admitted into and entitled to ers of the confederation ; and 
all the advantages of the Union, — that the provision which was after- 
accompanied with an express dec- wards made by Congress, in the 
laration that no other Colony, (by ordinance respecting the North- 
fvhich was evidently meant British western Territory, for the ultimate 



476 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Although the terms offered by Congress were 
thus heedlessly declined by the people of Ver- 
mont at first, the subject was subsequently re- 
considered by their representative Assembly, when 
a formal assent was given to the boundaries pre- 
scribed for the new State. Congress might well 
have thought themselves released from the obli- 
gation of accepting a compliance which was so 
tardy and ungracious ; but they referred the 
question to a committee, which, composed, as all 
the preceding committees had been, of sympa- 
thizing elements, made a report on the 17th of 
April, 1782, recommending that "the district or 
territory called Vermont be recognized as a free, 
sovereign, and independent State," and that meas- 
ures be taken for its admission into the federal 
Union. 1 

Before this report was taken into consideration 

introduction of new States out of or by the junction of two or more 

that territory, was " the assurap- States, or parts of States, without 

tion of an excrescent power," grow- the consent of the legislatures of 

ing out of circumstances which im- the States concerned, as well as of 

posed upon Congress the " task Congress. These limitations are 

of overleaping their constitutional a precise fulfilment of the idea we 

boundaries." [See Federalist, No. have seen expressed by Mr. Mad- 

38 and No. 43.] ison in his letter to Mr. Jones of 

It was to supply this defect of the 19th of September, 1780. [See 

power, and to guard against the ante, p. 469.] 

dangers of usurpation under the * See Journals of Congress, vol. 

plea of necessity, that an express iv. pp. 11, 12. The committee 

authority was given to Congress, consisted of Mr. Clymer of Penn- 

in the constitution of 1788, to "ad- sylvania, Mr. Carroll of Maryland, 

mit new States into the Union," Mr. Clark of New Jersey, Mr. Liv- 

but under limitations which forbid ermore of New Hampshire, and 

the formation of a new State within Mr. Law of Connecticut, 
the jurisdiction of another State, 



VERMONT COMMITS ACTS OF VIOLENCE. 477 

by Congress, the authorities of Vermont commit- 
ted fresh acts of violence on persons professing 
allegiance to the State of New York, by which 
some of them were condemned to banishment, 
"not to return on pain of death, and confisca- 
tion of estate," and others were fined in large 
sums, and deprived of their property. These 
facts were brought to the knowledge of Congress 
by a representation from the governor of New 
York ; whereupon resolutions, moved by Mr. 
McKean of Pennsylvania, were adopted, declaring 
the aforesaid acts to be in direct violation of the 
resolutions of Congress passed on the 24th of. 
September, 1779/ to be highly derogatory to the 
authority of the United States, and dangerous to 
the confederacy, — requiring the people of the 
district (now again called the "New Hampshire 
Grants,") to make full and ample restitution, 
without delay, to the parties injured, — and 
"pledging the United States to take effectual 
measures to enforce a compliance with the afore- 
said resolutions, in case the same be disobeyed 
by the people of the said district." 2 

These resolutions, moved by the delegate of a 
State which had always hitherto been counted 
among the patrons of Vermont, were sustained 
by the votes of several other States alike com- 
mitted to her cause, and finally passed, with the 
dissent only of Rhode Island and New Jersey. 

1 See ante, pp. 467, 468. 

2 See Journals of Congress, vol. iv. pp. 112-114. 



478 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Thus did these " turbulent sons of freedom " dash 
from their lips, by their own rashness, the cup 
of independence and admission into the Union, 
at the moment that it was held out to them by 
the generous hand of Congress. Instead of com- 
pliance, the resolutions last adopted by Congress 
produced only a tart and unbecoming remon- 
strance to the national council from the acting 
authorities of Vermont ; and fears began to be 
seriously entertained, and nowhere with more 
painful anxiety than in the paternal bosom of 
the commander-in-chief, 1 that brethren might be 
called to shed each others' blood in the closing, 
and otherwise triumphant, scenes of a contest 
commenced and prosecuted for the common lib- 
erty and happiness of all. The good genius of 
America forbade ; and Vermont had to bide her 
time till, in the manner and form prescribed by 
the general provisions of the constitution of 1788, 
she was regularly admitted into the sisterhood 
of States. 

1 See his letter to Mr. Jones, one of the delegates of Virginia in 
Congress, in Sparks's Washington, vol. viii. pp. 382-384. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Congress, after Provisional Articles of Peace, determine to dismiss a 
Portion of the Army on Furlough — Orderly and praiseworthy 
Conduct of Main Body of the Army on the Occasion — Complaints 
and Mutiny of a Detachment of the Pennsylvania Line — They 
insult the Executive Council and Congress — Mr. Madison's State- 
ment of the Affair — Congress adjourn from Philadelphia to Prince- 
ton — AVashington indignant at the Conduct of the Mutineers — 
Sends General Howe to reduce and punish them — Their Sub- 
mission — ■ Congress hold their Sittings in the College Buildings at 
Princeton — Proceedings on fixing a permanent as well as tempo- 
rary Place of Meeting — Two Federal Towns to be established 
for the alternate Residence of Congress — Mr. Madison's Views on 
Question of Jurisdiction at Seat of Government — General Wash- 
ington invited by Congress to Princeton — His Reception — Re- 
ception and public Audience of Dutch Minister — Delays in 
Conclusion of Definitive Treaty of Peace — Change of Adminis- 
tration in England — Coalition of Mr. Fox and Lord North — 
Evasions of Coalition Ministry in Negotiations at Paris — Distrust 
and Uneasiness of Congress — They reject Proposition for disband- 
ing the Army, and for farther Measures in Execution of Provis- 
ional Articles — Definitive Treaty at last concluded — Congress 
vote Thanks to the Army, and issue Proclamations for their Dis- 
charge and for a Day of public Thanksgiving — Mr. Madison's 
Service in the old Congress closes. 

In our last chapter, mention was incidentally 
made of the adjournment of Congress from Phil- 



480 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

adelphia to Princeton, in consequence of the free- 
dom of their deliberations at the former place 
being interrupted by the mutiny of a band of 
soldiers. A circumstance so unusual, and at the 
same time admonitory, in the civil history of the 
United States demands a fuller development. 

The uncertain and equivocal state of things 
produced by the long interval between the pro- 
visional articles of peace and a definitive treaty, 
gave rise to much embarrassment in Congress as 
to the disposal to be made of the army. Instead 
of a final disbandment, which was earnestly 
pressed by some, it was determined, on the 26th 
of May, 1783, that the commander-in-chief be 
authorized to grant furloughs to the men enlisted 
to serve during the war; 1 so that, if the provis- 
ional articles should not be followed by a defin- 
itive treaty, the soldiers thus engaged might be 
promptly recalled to the standard of the country, 
without the necessity of a new enlistment. This 
measure even, without the means of paying the 
arrears clue to the army, was not very easy of 
execution. Mr. Madison, in writing to a friend 
some months before, had said: "Without money, 
there is some reason to surmise that it may be 
as difficult to disband an army as it has been to 
raise one." 2 

But the great influence which the commander- 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. iv. p. 224. The furloughed men 
were allowed to take their arms with them. 

2 See Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 174, 175. 



MEASURES FOR DISBANDING ARMY. 481 

in-chief possessed over the hearts and minds of 
the army, combined with their own exemplary 
civic virtue and patriotism, enabled him to earn 
it into effect to the satisfaction of both the army 
and Congress, not only with an empty military 
chest, but even before any settlement of their 
accounts was made. In writing to the president 
of Congress on the 7th of June, 1783, he says : 
"The two subjects of complaint with the army 
appear to be the delay of the three months' 
payment, which had been expected, and the want 
of a settlement of accounts. I have thought my- 
self authorized to assure them that Congress had 
attended and would attend particularly to their 
grievances, and have made some little variations 
respecting furloughs from what was at first pro- 
posed." He then warmly commends "the tem- 
perate and orderly conduct of the whole army," 
on the occasion of the execution of a measure 
so delicate and trying, and concludes with these 
words of touching and affectionate fidelity to his 
veteran followers: "Permit me to recall to mind 
all their former sufferings and merits, and to 
recommend their reasonable request to the early 
and favorable notice of Con cress." 2 

But while such was the admirable conduct of 
the whole army under the immediate command 
and influence of Washington, a different spirit 
was manifested by one or two detachments at a 
distance. On the 13th of June, the troops in 

1 See Sparks's Washington, vol. vm. pp. 438, 439. 



VOL. i. 41 



482 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the barracks at Philadelphia sent in a memorial 
to Congress, signed by the non-commissioned offi- 
cers in behalf of the whole, setting forth their 
claims, and demanding a satisfactory answer in 
the course of the day, with a threat, otherwise, 
of taking measures to right themselves. 1 

Hardly was this demonstration quieted, when 
information was laid before Congress on the 19th 
of June, by the executive council of Pennsylva- 
nia, that eighty soldiers, who would probably be 
joined by the discharged soldiers of Armand's 
legion, were on their way from Lancaster to 
Philadelphia, in spite of the expostulations of 
their officers, declaring that they would proceed 
to the hall of Congress and demand justice, and 
intimating designs against the bank. On the fol- 
lowing day, these mutineers, under the guidance 
of their sergeants, came into the city, professing 
then to have no other object than a settlement 
of accounts, which they supposed "they had a 
better chance for at Philadelphia than Lancaster." 

The scenes which took place the day after, 
(21st of June,) are thus described by Mr. Madi- 
son in his diary of the proceedings of Congress : 

"The mutinous soldiers presented themselves, 
drawn up in the street before the state house, 
where Congress had assembled. The executive 
council of the State, sitting under the same roof, 
was called on for the proper interposition. Pres- 
ident Dickenson came in, and explained the diffi- 

i Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 460 and 548. 



MUTINY OF SOLDIERS IN PHILADELPHIA. 483 

culty, under actual circumstances, of bringing out 
the militia of the place for the suppression of 
the mutiny. He thought that, without some out- 
rages on persons or property, the militia could 
not be relied on. General St. Clair, then in Phil- 
adelphia, was sent for, and desired to use his in- 
terposition in order to prevail on 'the troops to 
return to the barracks. His report gave no en- 
couragement. 

"In this posture of things, it was proposed 
by Mr. Izard that Congress should adjourn. It 
was proposed by Mr. Hamilton that General St. 
Clair, in concert with the executive council of 
the State, should take order for terminating the 
mutiny. Mr. Reed moved that the General 
should endeavour to withdraw the troops by as- 
suring them of the disposition of Congress to do 
them justice. 

"It was finally agreed that Congress should 
remain till the usual hour of adjournment, but 
without taking any step in relation to the alleged 
grievances of the soldiers, or any other business 
whatever. In the mean time, the soldiers re- 
mained in their position without offering any 
violence ; individuals only occasionally uttering 
offensive words, and wantonly pointing their mus- 
kets to the windows of the hall of Congress. 
No danger from premeditated violence was ap- 
prehended; but it was observed that spirituous 
drink, from the tippling-houses adjoining, began 
to be liberally served out to the soldiers, and 



484 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

might lead to hasty excesses. None were com- 
mitted, however ; and about three o'clock, the 
usual hour, Congress adjourned, — the soldiers 
(though in some instances offering a mock ob- 
struction) permitting the members to pass through 
their ranks. They soon afterwards retired them- 
selves to the barracks." * 

In the evening of the same day, Congress re- 
assembled in their hall, and passed resolutions 
for formally communicating to the president and 
executive council of Pennsylvania " the gross in- 
sult which had been offered to the authority of 
the United States by the disorderly and men- 
acing appearance of a body of armed soldiers 
about the place within which Congress was as- 
sembled," and appointing a committee, consisting 
of Colonel Hamilton, Mr. Ellsworth, and Mr. Pe- 
ters, to confer with those authorities, and to rep- 
resent to them the necessity " of effectual meas- 
ures being immediately taken for suppressing the 
revolt, and maintaining the dignity and authority 
of the United States." 

In case the committee, after their conference 
with the State authorities, should be of opinion 
that " there was not a satisfactory ground for 
expecting adequate and prompt exertions of the 
State for supporting the dignity of the federal 
government," the president of Congress was, on 
their advice to that effect, to summon the body 
to meet, on the 26th of the month, at Trenton 

1 Madison Debates, vol. I. pp. 465, 466. 



CONGRESS REMOVES TO PRINCETON. 485 

or Princeton, in the State of New Jersey. 1 The 
answer of the executive council giving no assur- 
ance of any prompt and effectual interposition 
on their part, but on the contrary avowing that 
the cooperation of the militia of the city was 
not to be counted on, except " in case of further 
outrage, and actual violence to person or prop- 
erty," the president of Congress, upon the advice 
of the committee, proclaimed an adjournment to 
the State of New Jersey, as directed by the res- 
olutions already adopted. 

A resolution had been passed, at the same 
time, directing the secretary of war to commu- 
nicate to the commander-in-chief the occurrences 
which had taken place, in order that he might 
despatch to the city such force as he should 
judge expedient for suppressing the disturbances. 
The communication was received by General 
Washington at Newburgh on the 24th of the 
month, when he immediately wrote to the pres- 
ident of Congress as follows : — 

"It was not until three o'clock this afternoon 
that I had the first information of the infamous 
and outrageous mutiny of a part of the Penn- 
sylvania troops. It was then I received your 
Excellency's letter of the 21st, by your express ; 
and, agreeably to your request contained in it, 
I instantly ordered three complete regiments of 
infantry and a detachment of artillery to be put 
in motion as soon as possible. This corps, which, 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. IV. pp. 231, 232. 
41* 



486 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

you will observe by the return, is a large pro- 
portion of our whole force, will consist of fifteen 
hundred effectives. As all the troops who com- 
posed this gallant little army, as well those who 
are furloughed as those who remain in service, 
are men of tried fidelity, I could not have occa- 
sion to make any choice of corps." 

Filled with indignation and horror at the dis- 
loyal proceedings of this band of mutineers, 
and anxious that the reproach of their conduct 
should not, in any manner, be visited upon the 
character of the army which had followed him 
through so many trials, and. which he loved so 
well, he proceeded : — 

"While I suffer the most poignant distress in 
observing that a handful of men, contemptible in 
numbers, and equally so in point of service,- (if 
the veteran troops from the southward have not 
been seduced by their example,) and who are 
not worthy to be called soldiers, should disgrace 
themselves and their country, as the Pennsyl- 
vania mutineers have done, by insulting the sov- 
ereign authority of the United States, and that 
of their own, I feel an inexpressible satisfaction 
that even their behaviour cannot stain the name 

of the American soldiery For when 

we consider that these Pennsylvania levies, who 
have now mutinied, are recruits and soldiers of 
a day, who have not borne the heat and burden 
of the war, and who can have, in reality, very 
few hardships to complain of; and when we, at 



LETTER OF WASHINGTON TO CONGRESS. 487 

the same time, recollect that those soldiers who 
have lately been furloughed from this army are 
the veterans who have patiently borne hunger, 
nakedness, and cold ; who have suffered and bled 
without a murmur, and who, with perfect good 
order, have retired to their homes without a settle- 
ment of their accounts, or a farthing of money in 
their pockets ; we shall be as much astonished at 
the virtues of the latter, as we are struck with 
horror and detestation at the proceedings of the 
former ; and every candid mind, without indulging 
ill-grounded prejudices, will undoubtedly make the 
proper discrimination." 

Congress assembled at Princeton at the time 
appointed, and was welcomed by a patriotic let- 
ter from the governor of the State, assuring that 
bocly of the loyal attachment and support of the 
citizens of New Jersey. The trustees and mas- 
ters of the college immediately placed at the 
disposal of Congress the use of " its hall, library, 
and every other convenience which the edifice 
could afford." The offer was thankfully accept- 
ed ; and in those walls where, eleven years be- 
fore, Madison was a quiet and peaceful student 
from a distant province of the British crown, we 
now see him the active and busy representative 
of that same province, become a sovereign and 
independent State, and in conjunction with as- 
sembled representatives from twelve other widely 
separated provinces, which had in like manner 
thrown off their subjection to the British crown, 



488 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

making laws for united and independent Amer- 
ica, and freely deliberating on the terms of peace 
with their former sovereign, now an alien and 
belligerent power. Human life has few more re- 
markable contrasts than this. 

One of the first measures of Congress in their 
new residence was to order Major-General Howe, 
who had been placed in command of the detach- 
ment of fifteen hundred men sent by Washing- 
ton for the suppression of the disorders in Phil- 
adelphia, to march into Pennsylvania with such 
part of his force as he should deem necessary 
to put an effectual end to the late mutiny, and 
to apprehend and bring to trial all such persons, 
belonging to the army, as had been principally 
active in it, This service was promptly and sat- 
isfactorily performed. The mutineers immedi- 
ately submitted. Two of the sergeants were tried 
by a court-martial, and condemned to death ; 
but it appearing that they had been seduced by 
two of their subaltern officers of very bad charac- 
ter, who had made their escape on the approach 
of General Howe's detachment, they were finally 
pardoned by Congress. 

Although this affair was thus speedily termi- 
nated, it served to evince the necessity of Con- 
gress possessing an independent jurisdiction in 
the place of their sittings. Much time was spent 
in discussing the nature and extent of the local 
jurisdiction they should be invested with, in order 
to insure the freedom and dignity of their delib- 



FUTURE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT. 489 

erations, and also in fixing upon a permanent 
seat for their future residence. This last ques- 
tion brought into competition so many geograph- 
ical interests and aspirations that it was exceed- 
ingly difficult to arrive at any solution. 

The competition was at length narrowed down 
to the banks, of the Delaware and the banks of 
the Potomac. After a decision in favor of 
the former, which was not satisfactory to the 
Southern States, a representative of Massachu- 
setts, Mr. Gerry, brought forward a proposition 
for the alternate residence of Congress in two 
places, as better calculated " to promote the mu- 
tual confidence and affection of the States," and 
with that view, moved that suitable buildings for 
the accommodation of Congress be erected on 
the banks of the Potomac, near the lower falls, 
as well as on the banks of the Delaware, near 
its fills, as had already been determined upon 
by a previous vote. 1 The proposition, which was 
certainly conceived in a generous and enlarged 
spirit, met the acceptance of Congress ; but the 
practical inconveniences of such an arrangement, 
under the immense accumulation of public busi- 
ness to be expected in so extensive a country, 
became too obvious to permit a serious attempt 
to carry it into execution. 2 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. tween the Eastern and Southern 
IV. pp. 297, 300, and 307, 308. States against the Middle; which 

2 This arrangement, destined to seemed a retributive offset to the 
a very brief duration, was brought coalition we have already seen en- 
about by a temporary coalition be- tered into between the Middle and 



490 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



With regard to the jurisdiction over the pro- 
posed federal towns, Congress, not having been 
able to determine the precise nature and extent 
of it to their own satisfaction, provided in gen- 
eral that " an exclusive jurisdiction, or such other 
as Congress may direct, should be vested in the 
United States." Mr. Madison, always alive to the 
importance of every question which respected the 
constitutional boundaries of power, expressed his 
views on this subject, in a letter of July 28th, 
1783, to his friend Judge Pendleton, as follows: 

"In order to prepare the way to their perma- 
nent residence, Congress have appointed a corn- 



Eastern States against the South- 
ern, with regard to the territorial 
question. A letter addressed, in 
January, 1784, by Mr. Higginson, 
one of the delegates of Massachu- 
setts, to Colonel Bland, lately a del- 
egate from Virginia, shows both 
the fact of the coalition, and the 
strong feelings of dissatisfaction 
which then existed among the 
Eastern delegates towards Penn- 
sylvania in particular, the chief of 
the Middle States. We subjoin 
the following extract from that 
letter as a curious piece of con- 
temporary history. 

"You returned home, I imagine, 
with much greater satisfaction, hav- 
ing given your voice in favor of 
the alternate residence of Con- 
gress. That decision of Congress 
was, in my opinion, founded on the 
best of policy. It has long been 
my wish to see the Southern and 



Eastern States united. Their com- 
mon safety and interest must be 
increased by that decision ; for the 
Middle States had certainly laid 
such plans, and acquired such an 
influence, as would have given 
them the entire direction of the 
national concerns. Pennsylvania, 
or rather a junto of ambitious in- 
dividuals in it, had conceived the 
idea of lording it over the other 
States ; and nothing but a coalition 
of the extremities could have pre- 
vented their succeeding. They 
always exerted themselves to keep 
up a high degree of jealousy be- 
tween the Southern and Eastern 
States; and while their attention 
was engaged in watching each 
other, these would-be despots were 
ever concerting and executing their 
plans for the subjugation of both." 
See the Bland Papers, vol. II. p. 
113. 



JURISDICTION OVER FEDERAL TOWN. 491 

mittee to define the jurisdiction proper for them 
to be invested with. Williamsburg has asked an 
explanation on this point. The nearer the sub- 
ject is viewed, the less easy it is to mark the 
just boundary between the authority of Congress 
and that of the State on one side, and, on the 
other, between the former and the privileges of 
the inhabitants. May it not also be made a 
question whether, in constitutional strictness, the 
gift of any State, without the concurrence of all 
the rest, can authorize Congress to exercise any 
power not delegated by the confederation, — as 
Congress, it would seem, are incompetent to 
every act not warranted by that instrument, or 
some other flowing from the same source." 

Thus did the thoughtful and comprehensive 
mind of Mr. Madison foreshadow the difficulties 
of a question, which it was reserved for the con- 
vention of 1787 to solve by an express provision 
in the new constitution. It is remarkable that, 
in the same letter, he suggested the expedient 
by which the permanent and sole seat of Con- 
gress and of the federal government was ulti- 
mately assigned to the banks of the Potomac. 

"Williamsburg," he says, "seems to have a 
very slender chance, as far as I can discover. 
Annapolis, I apprehend, would have a greater 
number of advocates. But the best chance, both 
for Maryland and Virginia, will be to unite in 
offering a double jurisdiction on the Potomac." 1 

1 See Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. I. pp. 558, 559. 



492 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

After Congress had disposed of the question 
of their permanent residence in the manner above 
mentioned, they settled that of their temporary 
abode, in the same spirit of geographical compro- 
mise, by directing that, until the buildings to be 
erected on the banks of the Delaware and the 
Potomac should be prepared for the reception of 
Congress, their residence shall be alternately, at 
equal periods of not more than one year and not 
less than six months, in Trenton and Annapolis, 
and that Congress be adjourned on the 4th day 
of November, to meet at Annapolis on the 26th 
of the same month. 1 

Until the day fixed for their adjournment, they 
continued their sessions in Princeton. Two events 
of an imposing character occurred to illustrate 
the period of their sojournment in that quiet, 
academic retreat. Upon the invitation of Con- 
gress, the commander-in-chief transferred his res- 
idence to Princeton from his head-quarters on the 
Hudson. The ostensible motive of the invitation 
was the desire to consult him upon the details 
of a proper peace establishment ; but the yearn- 
ings of the hearts of the representatives of the 
nation towards their great chief, and the comfort 
of leaning upon his mighty arm, in peace as in 
war, doubtless entered largely into the feelings 
which prompted it. 

He arrived on the 25th of August, and was 
on the following day received by Congress in a 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. IV. pp. 302 and 315, 316. 



WASHINGTON REMOVES TO PRINCETON. 493 

public audience. To the affectionate welcome and 
congratulations of the president, he replied by 
assuring Congress of his readiness "to contribute 
his best endeavours towards the establishment of 
the national security, in whatever manner the 
sovereign power may think proper to direct, until 
the definitive treaty of peace or the evacuation 
of the country by the British forces ; after either 
of which events, he should ask permission to re- 
tire to the peaceful shades of private life." Ac- 
commodations were provided for him at Rocky 
Hill, a pleasant country residence in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Princeton ; where he continued 
for more than two months, and until a few days 
before the evacuation of the city of New York 
by the British army under the command of Sir 
Guy Carleton. 

The other event to which we have alluded was 
the public reception of the Chevalier Van Berckel, 
minister of the United Netherlands, — the second 
foreign minister ever accredited to the United 
States, and the representative of an illustrious 
republic, which was next to our great ally among 
the powers of Europe in the recognition of our 
national independence. Congress was naturally 
desirous of marking the occasion with every cir- 
cumstance of public honor and respect which 
their present situation admitted. The office of 
secretary of foreign affairs being vacant by the 
resignation of Mr. Livingston, Mr. Robert Morris, 
superintendent of finance, and General Lincoln, 

VOL. I. 42 



494 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

secretary of war, were charged with the direction 
of the ceremonial; and the commander-in-chief, 
the executives of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
the minister of France, and u such civil and mil- 
itary gentlemen as were in or near Princeton," 
were invited to attend. It was also ordered that 
"an entertainment be given to the minister at 
the public expense." 

The audience took place in the room occupied 
by Congress in the college building, on the 31st 
of October. The striking historical parallel in 
the heroic struggles through which the two re- 
publics had passed in order to achieve their na- 
tional independence, could not but be called to 
mind on both sides. 

The minister, in addressing Congress, said : 
"While all Europe kept its eyes fixed on your 
exploits, their High Mightinesses, the States-Gen- 
eral, could not refrain from very seriously inter- 
esting themselves therein, recollecting, as they 
always did, the dangers and difficulties to which 
their forefathers were subjected before they could 
free themselves from the yoke in which they 
were enthralled. They knew, better than any 
other, the worth of independence ; and they knew 
better to set a just value on the greatness of 
your designs. They applauded your generous 
enterprise, which was inspired by a love of your 
country, conducted with prudence and supported 
with heroic courage ; and they rejoiced at the 
happy success which crowned your labors." 



RECEPTION OF DUTCH MINISTER. 495 

To these allusions, the president of Congress 
replied : " In a contest for the rights of human 
nature, the citizens of the United States of Amer- 
ica could not but be impressed with the glorious 
example of those illustrious patriots, who, triumph- 
ing over every difficulty and danger, established 
the liberties of the United Netherlands on the 
most honorable and permanent basis. Congress, 
at an early period of the war, sought the friend- 
ship of their High Mightinesses, convinced that 
the same inviolable regard for liberty, and the 
same wisdom, justice, and magnanimity which led 
their forefathers to glorv were handed down un- 
impaired to their posterity; and our satisfaction 
was great in accomplishing with them a treaty of 
amity and commerce on terms so acceptable to 
both nations." 

He added the following cordial and glowing 
anticipation of the future intercourse of the two 
republics, which happily their relations, to the 
present day, have not failed to justify. 

" Governed by the same ardent love of free- 
dom, and the same maxims of policy, cemented 
by a liberal system of commerce, and earnestly 
disposed to advance our mutual prosperity by a 
reciprocity of good offices, we persuade ourselves 
that the most friendly and beneficial connection 
between the two republics will be preserved in- 
violate to the latest ages." 

Almost a year had now elapsed since the sig- 
nature of the provisional articles of peace at 



496 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Paris ; and although military operations had ceased 
on both sides, the main body of the British army 
still occupied the city of New York, awaiting, no 
doubt, the farther progress of the negotiations for 
a definitive treaty. The nature and causes of the 
delay which had taken place in those negotia- 
tions are to be sought chiefly in the complica- 
tions and vicissitudes of political parties in Eng- 
land. 

A few days after the conclusion of the provis- 
ional articles with the United States, the British 
Parliament assembled ; and in the speech from 
the throne, the reluctant concession of American 
independence was mentioned as still in some 
degree contingent upon the settlement of the 
terms of peace with France. 1 A motion, made 
by Mr. Fox, for the production of the provisional 
articles, was negatived ; and, soon after, Parlia- 
ment adjourned to the 21st of the following 
mouth. In the mean time, preliminary articles 
of peace were concluded with the other powers 
at Paris; and on the 27th of January, 1783, all 

i In taking leave of his transat- wishes and opinion of my people, 

lantic subjects, the king expressed I make it my humble and earnest 

a paternal solicitude lest their con- prayer to Almighty God that Great 

stitutional liberties should in future Britain may not feel the evils which 

be endangered by the privation of might result from so great a dis- 

monarchical rule, — a sentiment memberment of the empire, and 

which found an echo, perhaps, in that America may be free from 

some American minds at that day. those calamities which have for- 

" In thus admitting," he said, " their merly proved, in the mother coun- 

separation from the crown of these try, how essential monarchy is to 

kingdoms, I have sacrificed every the enjoyment of constitutional lib- 

oonskleration of my own to the erty." 



COALITION MINISTRY IN ENGLAND. 497 

the treaties — as well the provisional articles with 
the United States, as the preliminary articles with 
France and Spain — were laid before Parliament 
and ordered to be printed. The 17th of Febru- 
ary was assigned for their consideration. 

That day was destined to witness one of the 
most extraordinary and ill-starred political combi- 
nations which the history of parties in any coun- 
try has ever presented, — a coalition between the 
former champion of American subjugation, and 
the eloquent advocate of American freedom who 
had only a }^ear before expelled him from power. 
These recent antagonists were now closely and 
openly united in concerted opposition to the 
terms of peace. While a professed disapproba- 
tion of the conditions of peace constituted the 
ostensible ground of this union between Mr. Fox 
and Lord North, their known violent resentments 
against Lord Shelburne, and the prospect of again 
installing themselves in power upon his ruin, fur- 
nished motives so much more obvious and intel- 
ligible for a conjunction of political elements 
otherwise so repulsive and discordant, that the 
coalition between them revolted the moral sense 
of the nation. Neither the captivating wit and 
incomparable address of the one, nor the lofty 
abilities and generous temper of the other, were 
ever afterwards able to restore either of them 
entirely to the public confidence and esteem. 

The coalition, nevertheless, had a momentary 
success. An amendment to the usual address 

42* 



498 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

having been carried by them, after a long and 
vehement debate, on the 17th of February, for- 
mal resolutions, condemning the terms of peace 
as making " greater concessions to the adversa- 
ries of Great Britain than they were entitled to 
expect," were introduced on the 21st by Lord 
John Cavendish, and carried, with a like major- 
ity, by the same political combination. 1 The 
adoption of these resolutions produced the result 
which was intended, of the resignation of Lord 
Shelburne and the dissolution of his ministry ; 
but owing to the natural repugnance of the king 
to the leaders of the coalition, and in conse- 
quence of the number of rival pretensions, both 
personal and political, to be reconciled in a new 
arrangement, a lonsr ministerial interregnum en- 
sued. 

It was not until the 2nd of April that another 
administration was formed, with the Duke of 
Portland, first lord of the treasury, Lord North, 
secretary of state for the home department, and 
Mr. Fox, secretary for foreign affairs. The other 
places in the government were distributed be- 

1 In the course of the debate of and arbitrary despots stood forth 

the 17th of February, very free as the protectors of an infant re- 

and pointed animadversions were public ; and in that House, lofty 

made upon the coalition, which, it and strenuous asserters of high pre- 

was generally understood, had been rogative had combined with the 

concluded the night before. In humble worshippers of the majesty 

the House of Commons, Mr. Powys of the people ; the most determined 

said : — advocate of crown influence was 

" The present era was remarka- seen hand in hand with the great 

ble for strange confederacies ; great purifier of the constitution." 



PROPOSALS FOR DEFINITIVE TREATY. 499 

tween the political friends of the two chiefs of 
the coalition ; but the larger number, as well as 
the most important in character and influence, 
fell to the share of Mr. Fox's friends. 

In the resolutions of Lord John Cavendish, it 
was expressly declared that, in consideration of 
the public faith being pledged, the peace agreed 
upon by the provisional and preliminary articles 
should be inviolably maintained ; and it was also 
admitted that the acknowledgment of American 
independence was in compliance with the neces- 
sity of the times and the sense of Parliament. 
The criticisms made in debate on the arrangement 
with America bore, in a general way, on the 
extent of the boundaries, and the large partici- 
pation in the fisheries yielded by it, but were 
directed, with particular stress and earnestness, 
against the inadequate and unsatisfactory nature 
of the provisions made on behalf of the loyalists. 

A few clays after the formation of the coalition 
ministry, Mr. Hartley was appointed in the place 
of Mr. Oswald, to settle with the American 
commissioners at Paris the terms of a definitive 
treaty, and immediately set out on his mission. 
It seemed, at first, to be the desire of the new 
ministry to include in the definitive treaty some 
arrangement respecting the commercial inter- 
course between the two countries. 

The late administration had evinced on this 
subject a spirit of unusual and enlightened liber- 
ality. Mr. Pitt, as chancellor of the exchequer, 



500 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

had introduced into the House of Commons a 
bill for the temporary regulation of the inter- 
course, by which the vessels of the United States 
were to be admitted into all the ports of Great 
Britain in the same manner as the vessels of 
" other independent, sovereign States ; " and the 
productions of the United States, imported in 
their own vessels, were to pay no other or higher 
duties than the same productions would be liable 
to, " if they were the property of British subjects 
and imported in British vessels." The trade of 
the British West India Islands, and of the other 
British Colonies and plantations in America, was, 
by the same bill, to be opened to the citizens 
of the United States with American produce in 
American vessels, on an equal footing with the 
subjects of Great Britain with British merchan- 
dise in British vessels. 

The wise liberality of this measure exposed it 
to the vehement attacks of the British navigat- 
ing: interest : and it was withdrawn by the, new 
ministry. What they now desired to obtain, and 
to make a part of the definitive treaty, was ad- 
mission into the ports of the United States with 
the privileges of natives, both for their vessels 
and cargoes, in exchange for like privileges 
accorded to American vessels and cargoes, with 
regard to the ports of Great Britain alone ; leav- 
ing the trade with the British West Indies and 
the other colonial possessions of the British crown 
to the operation of the Navigation Act, which 



WEST INDIA TRADE. 501 

would entirely exclude the citizens of the United 
States from any participation in that trade. In- 
formation, however, was soon received in England 
that the American ports were already open to 
British trade without restriction ; and Lord Shef 
field's " Observations," which appeared about the 
same time, having satisfied them that no future 
defensive or retaliatory measures of any efficiency 
were to be apprehended from the United States, 
so long as there was no central authority in the 
confederacy armed with the direct power of reg- 
ulating the commerce of the States with foreign 
nations, the ministry grew altogether indifferent 
to any commercial arrangement. 

The American commissioners, on their part, 
were very anxious to obtain for the citizens and 
vessels of the United States free admission to 
the trade with the British West Indies and other 
Colonies in America, and offered to pay for it 
the price of the privileges of natives, to be ac- 
corded to British subjects and vessels in the 
ports of the United States. 1 The negotiations 

1 Mr. Madison thought the pro- " With regard to the concession 
posed concession unwise in princi- to be made on the part of the 
pie, as disarming the United States United States, it may be observed 
of a power of discrimination which that it will affect chiefly, if not sole- 
might become essential for the ly, those States (producing) which 
protection of the national enter- will share least in the advantages 
prise and industry, and also very purchased by it. So striking, in- 
unequal in its effects upon the deed, does this contrast appear, 
interests of the producing and the that it may with certainty be in- 
navigating States. In this last ferred that, if Great Britain were 
view, in a letter addressed to Mr. negotiating a treaty with the former 
Edmund Randolph in May, 1 783, (navigating) States only, she would 
he remarked : — reject a mutual communication of 



502 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

continued to drag on wearily and heavily, amid 
propositions on the one side and the other ; and 
what was specially remarkable, propositions made 
by the British negotiator were, in several in- 
stances, disallowed and rejected by his own govern- 
ment. At length appeared the royal proclamation 
of the 2d of July, 1783, virtually interdicting the 
West India trade to the citizens and vessels of 
the United States, by allowing it only to " Brit- 
ish subjects in British-built ships, owned by his 
Majesty's subjects, and navigated according to 
law." x 

On the 27th of July, the American commis- 
sioners wrote to Mr. Livingston, the secretary for 
foreign affairs, and gave him the following ac- 
count of the state of the negotiations : — 

"The definitive treaties between the late bel- 
ligerent powers are none of them yet completed. 
Ours has gone on slowly, owing partly to the 
necessity Mr. Hartley, successor of Mr. Oswald, 
thinks himself under of sending every proposi- 
tion, either his own or ours, to his court for 
their approbation, and their delay in answering, 
through negligence perhaps, since they have 
heard our ports are open, or through indecision, 
occasioned by ignorance of the subject, or through 

the privileges of natives ; nor is it policy of the United States with 

clear that her apprehensions on regard to commercial treaties, in 

this side will not yet lead her to Madison Debates and Correspond- 

reject such a stipulation with the ence, vol. I. pp. 533-538. 
whole." 1 Diplomatic Correspondence of 

See this letter, for its able and the American Revolution, vol. vil 

profound views in general on the pp. 82, 83. 



DISSATISFACTION IN UNITED STATES. 503 

want of union among the ministers. We send 
you herewith copies of several papers that have 
passed between us. He has, for some time, as- 
sured us that he is in hourly expectation of 
answers; but the}^ do not arrive." 1 

In the mean time, not a little distrust and un- 
easiness were beginning to be felt in the United 
States, in consequence of these delays. We have 
seen with what promptitude Congress, immedi- 
ately after the arrival of the provisional articles, 
had ordered a release of the prisoners of war 
held by them, in fulfilment of the stipulations of 
one of those articles; and yet the most impor- 
tant of the posts, which Great Britain was, by 
that same article, bound to withdraw her armies 
from "with all convenient speed," were still oc- 
cupied by her troops; and another of its stipu- 
lations, that "no negroes or other property of 
the American inhabitants should be carried away," 
was daily and openly violated with the avowed 
knowledge and connivance of the British com- 
mander-in-chief. 

There were, nevertheless, those in Congress 
who thought it expedient, even under these cir- 
cumstances, to disband the army; and on the 
2 3d of May a committee, consisting of Colonel 
Hamilton, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Gorham, reported 
a resolution that the non-commissioned officers 
and soldiers, enlisted to serve during the war, be 

1 Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. x 
p. 193. 



504 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

immediately discharged. Mr. Madison moved to 
recommit the report; and although a decided 
majority of the members present voted for the 
motion, (including even the members of the com- 
mittee, with the exception of Colonel Hamilton,) 
it was lost for the want of the requisite raimber 
of affirmative States. 1 

A proposition was then submitted by Mr. Wil- 
liamson of North Carolina to furlough, instead of 
discharging, the troops enlisted for the war. Colo- 
nel Mercer of Virginia opposed both propositions in 
a motion, setting forth, as the grounds of it : " First, 
that Sir Guy Carleton had not given satisfactory 
reasons for continuing at New York ; secondly, 
that he had broken the articles of the provis- 
ional treaty, relative to the negroes, by sending 
them off." Mr. Madison, in giving an account of 
these proceedings, records " that the motion of 
Colonel Mercer appeared exceptionable to sev- 
eral, particularly to Mr. Hamilton ; and rather 
than it should be entered on the Journals by yeas 
and nays, it was agreed- that the whole subject 
should lie over." The propositions both to dis- 
charge and to furlough the troops were, however, 
successively negatived. 2 

The subject came up again on the 26th of 
May, when, upon the motion of Colonel Hamil- 
ton, resolutions were unanimously adopted in- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv 454, 455, and Journals of Con- 
pp. 222, 223. gress, vol. iv. p. 223. 

2 Madison Debates, vol. I. pp. 



A PARTY OVER- ANXIOUS FOR PEACE. 505 

structing our ministers abroad to remonstrate to 
the court of Great Britain against the violation 
of the provisional articles in the carrying away 
the negroes, and to demand reparation for the 
same, and directing the commander-in-chief like- 
wise to continue his remonstrances on the subject 
to Sir Guy Carleton. The proposition previously 
submitted by Mr. Williamson of North Carolina 
to furlough the troops enlisted for the war, was 
then moved by Colonel Hamilton, and was passed, 
as we have already had occasion to mention. 1 

The same party in Congress which favored an 
immediate disbandment of the army, and had 
carried through the proposition for an immediate 
release of the prisoners of war, now proposed 
other measures to precipitate the complete exe- 
cution of the provisional articles on the part of 
the United States in advance of the conclusion 
of a definitive treaty, and notwithstanding the 
disregard which had been shown of those articles 
by the British authorities. On the 9th of May, 
Mr. Dyer of Connecticut moved " a recommenda- 
tion to the States to restore confiscated property 
according to the provisional articles ; " and on the 
14th of the same month, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. 
Ellsworth moved "a call on the States to fulfil 
the recommendation relative to the Tories." 2 A 
committee was at length appointed, consisting of 
Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Ellsworth, Mr. Izard of South 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. rv. 2 Madison Debates, vol. i. p. 
pp. 223, 224. 451. 

VOL. I. 43 



50G LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Carolina, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Hawkins of North 
Carolina, to consider and report to Congress * what 
further steps are proper to be taken by them for 
carrying into effect the stipulations contained in 
the articles between the United States and Great 
Britain, dated the 30th of November last." 1 

The several States in which confiscations of 
the estates of the Tories or Loyalists had taken 
place, had strongly remonstrated against any 
agreement being entered into by the American 
commissioners for the restitution of those estates ; 
and instructions to the same effect had been 
given to the commissioners by Congress. Under 
these circumstances, they did not venture upon 
any other stipulation in the provisional articles 
than that Congress would recommend to the legis- 
latures of the respective States to provide for 
the restitution of the confiscated estates. This 
stipulation was contained in the fifth article. By 
the fourth article, it was stipulated that creditors 
should meet with no lawful impediment to the 
recovery of their debts ; and by the sixth, that 
no future confiscations or prosecutions should take 
place against any persons, on account of the part 
they may have taken in the war. 

The committee above mentioned, of which 
Colonel Hamilton was chairman, made a report, 
proposing that, — "Whereas Congress are desirous 
of giving speedy and full effect to all the stipu- 
lations of the provisional articles on the part of 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. IV. p. 224. 



THEIR COUNSELS OVERRULED. 507 

the United States, and of accelerating thereby 
the blessings of peace, in the confidence that the 
conduct of his Britannic Majesty will be gov- 
erned by a like disposition," — the several States 
be required, and they are hereby required, to re- 
move all obstructions to the full and immediate 
execution of the fourth and sixth articles ; and 
that it be earnestly recommended to them to 
take into serious consideration the fifth article, 
and " to conform to the several matters therein 
contained, with that spirit of moderation and lib- 
erality which ought ever to characterize the de- 
liberations and measures of a free and enlightened 
nation." 

In the midst of the flagrant disregard, exhib- 
ited by the representatives and agents of the 
British government, of the stipulations contained 
in the provisional articles on their side, the over- 
zealous anxiety manifested in this report to hurry 
on the full execution of the articles by the United 
States, in the vain notion of propitiating the tem- 
per of an obstinate and infatuated monarch, very 
naturally revolted the sentiments of Congress. 
On the 30th of May, when the report was taken 
up for consideration, a motion was made to com- 
mit it, which was carried by the vote of every 
member present except Colonel Hamilton, who 
stood alone in opposition to the motion. 1 

From this time, no farther attempt appears to 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. pp. 225, 226. See also Secret Jour- 
nals, vol. in. pp. 355-358. 



508 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

have been made in Congress to press a prema- 
ture execution of the provisional articles on the 
part of the United States. 

Inexplicable delays still continued at Paris in 
the negotiations for a definitive treaty ; until, at 
last, — every proposition to modify or enlarge the 
provisional articles having terminated in illusion 
or abortion, and the other powers having agreed 
upon definitive treaties among themselves, and 
France pressing earnestly for some conclusion be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States, — it 
was agreed to convert the provisional articles as 
they originally stood, without the slightest varia- 
tion, into a definitive treaty. As such, they were 
signed and executed over again, by the respec- 
tive plenipotentiaries at Paris, on the 3d day of 
September, 1783 ; and on the same day the de- 
finitive treaties between the other powers were 
consummated, with like solemnity, at Versailles. 

The American commissioners, in communicat- 
ing the result to the president of Congress, make 
the following remarks : — 

" Whether the British court meant to avoid a 
definitive treaty with us, through a vain hope, 
from the exaggerated accounts of divisions among 
our people and want of authority in Congress, 
that some revolution would soon happen in their 
favor, or whether their dilatory conduct was 
caused by the strife of two opposite and nearly 
equal parties in the cabinet, is hard to decide." 1 

1 Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, vol. X. 
p. 217. 



FINAL TERMINATION OF THE WAR. 509 

The long drama, diplomatic and military, was 
now closed. Sir Guy Carleton received instruc- 
tions to evacuate New York without farther 
delay; and on the 18th of October, Congress 
issued a proclamation finally discharging the 
troops enlisted for the war, and returning to the 
whole army " the thanks of their country for 
their long, eminent, and faithful services." In 
this parting address, Congress paid a well mer- 
ited tribute to the civic, as well as military, vir- 
tues of the defenders of American freedom. 

"In the progress of an arduous and difficult 
war," said they, " the armies of the United States 
have eminently displayed every military and pa- 
triotic virtue, and are not less to be applauded 
for their fortitude and magnanimity in the most 
trying scenes of distress, than for a series of 
heroic and illustrious achievements which exalt 
them to a high rank among the most zealous 
and successful defenders of the rights and liber- 
ties of mankind." 

At the same time, another proclamation was 
issued, appointing a clay of public thanksgiving 
in humble acknowledgment of the interposition 
of Divine Providence in bringing a contest ap- 
parently so unequal, and through so many perils 
and difficulties, to an issue so auspicious and glo- 
rious. In reviewing; the manifestations of divine 
goodness, this document impressively recalled 
"that He hath been pleased to conduct us in 
safety through all the perils and vicissitudes of the 

43* 






510 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

war ; that he hath given us unanimity and resolu- 
tion to adhere to our just rights; that he hath 
raised up a powerful ally to assist us in support- 
ing them, and crowned our united efforts with suc- 
cess : " and then looking forward to the mighty 
and eventful future, it invoked the same good- 
ness " to give wisdom and unanimity to our pub- 
lic councils; to cement all our citizens in the 
bonds of affection ; to inspire them with an ear- 
nest regard for the national honor and interest; 
to enable them to improve the days of prosper- 
ity by every good work, and to be lovers of 
peace and tranquillity; to bless us in our hus- 
bandry, our commerce and navigation ; to smile 
upon our seminaries and means of education ; to 
cause pure religion and virtue to flourish ; to 
give peace to all nations, and to fill the world 
with his glory." 1 

In this noble manner did the Congress of the 
United States celebrate and proclaim the termi- 
nation of the protracted conflict of arms, through 
which the liberty and independence of their 
country were at last achieved. This, too, was the 
closing scene of Mr. Madison's service in that 
illustrious body. He had now served one year 
more than the triennial term of rotation which 
had been established by the legislation of his 
own State, as well as by the articles of confed- 
eration ; and while Washington was on his way 
to Annapolis to resign into the hands of Congress 

1 See Journals of Congress, vol. IV. pp. 298, 299. 



MR. MADISON RETURNS TO VIRGINIA. 511 

the military commission he had borne with such 
unrivalled virtue and glory, Madison was on his 
return to the State of their common nativity, 
having, by able and unwearied services in coun- 
cil, sustained the same cause which his immortal 
countryman crowned with triumph in the held. 
They were soon to be united again in other la- 
bors, not less important to the lasting happiness 
and glory of their country. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Review of Mr. Madison's Career in old Congress — Complex and 
diversified Questions, foreign and domestic, before that Body, during 
Period of his Service — Distinction acquired by him — General Con- 
fidence and Support of his Constituents — A Party hostile to him — 
His Constancy and unintermitted Attention to his Public Duties — 
Pecuniary Sacrifices — Nature of Provision made by Virginia for 
Support of her Delegates in Congress — Mr. Madison's Social Habits 
— His Humor — A tender Attachment — Enters upon the Study of 
the Law, after his Return to Virginia — Correspondence on public 
Questions with Friends who consulted him — A favorite Project 
for their future Lives urged by Mr. Jefferson — Prepares himself 
for the great Work of Constitutional Reform by diligent Researches 
into the History of Confederacies, ancient and modern — Sum- 
moned again from his Retirement into the Legislature of the 
State — Character of that Body — Its Parties — Its Leaders — Pat- 
rick Henry — Richard Henry Lee. 

The period of Mr. Madison's service in Con- 
gress presented by far the most arduous and 
complex problems of national policy, internal and 
external, which the war of the Revolution gave 
rise to. He came into the body just at the mo- 
ment when the system of paper credit, by which 
the war had been hitherto supported, experienced 
a sudden and fatal collapse ; and when it became 



REVIEW OF MR. MADISON'S CAREER. 513 

imperiously necessary to provide other financial 
resources, at home or abroad. At the same mo- 
ment, the enemy, despairing of the success of 
the diplomatic wiles he had for some time been 
essaying in vain, recommenced his operations in 
the field with a vigor and formidable array of 
force, both military and naval, that he had never 
before displayed, and which was directed to the 
entire conquest and permanent occupation of the 
whole of the Southern States. 

New and most important relations with the pow- 
ers of Europe were, also, then inaugurated, not 
only by the alliance with France, but by the succes- 
sive mediations offered for the reestablishment of 
peace ; and especially by the negotiations with 
Spain, who demanded, as the price of her sup- 
port, the surrender of the Mississippi and of the 
Western country. In the midst of these exigen- 
cies of war and negotiation, jealousies and dis- 
cords prevailed, to a great degree, among the 
States of the Union, mainly in regard to their 
interests in the territory which Spain was en- 
deavouring to obtain ; and owing to those dis- 
cords, the articles of confederation, by which the 
national energies were to be firmly united and 
efficiently directed, still remained uncompleted. 

We have seen what an able and leading and 
successful part Mr. Madison took in all these 
great and difficult questions, — ever loyal to the 
rights and dignity of his own State, but ani- 
mated, at the same time, with a comprehensive 



514 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

American spirit, which looked upon all the mem- 
bers of the confederacy as one family, bound to 
mutual concession and harmony among them- 
selves, but to inflexible firmness and perseverance 
in the maintenance of the common dignity and 
rights against the rest of the world. It was this 
just and elevated spirit, combined with his disci- 
plined statesmanship, superior knowledge, and 
balanced judgment and temper, which placed him, 
yet a young man, in the very first rank of the 
distinguished assembly of which he was a mem- 
ber. And when it is recollected that in that 
assembly he sat with such men as Samuel Adams, 
Gerry, Gorham, Langdon, Ellery, Ellsworth, Sher- 
man, and Wolcott, from the East; John Dickin- 
son, Witherspoon, Clymer, Wilson, Peters, McKean, 
Robert R. Livingston, Alexander Hamilton, and 
Duane, from the Middle States ; the Rutledges, 
Laurens, Middleton, Matthews, Randolph, Lee, 
Jones, Mercer, Williamson, and Burke, from the 
South — such a rank in such a body might well 
have filled the measure of an ambition much 
greater than his. 

The law of Virginia, at the time of Mr. Madi- 
son's election to Congress, expressly disqualified 
a delegate from serving more than three years 
in any term of six. 1 As he was first elected in 
the autumn of 1779, he could not, under this 
limitation, have continued in Congress beyond 
the autumn of 1782. But when the annual 

i Hen. Stat. vol. x. p. 74. 



KEPEATED RE-ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 515 

election came on, at the May session of 1782, of 
delegates to serve in the Congress commencing 
with the first Monday of November following, so 
important was it felt to be to secure the contin- 
uance of his services in the field of patriotic 
labor, in which he had so much signalized his 
usefulness to the State and to the whole coun- 
try, that the law which rendered him ineligible 
was repealed, 1 and he was chosen for a fourth 
year of consecutive service in the national coun- 
cils. 2 

At the end of the fourth year, there remained, 
under the triennial rotation established by the 
articles of confederation, but which did not begin 
to operate until the 1st of March, 1781, (the 
date of the final ratification of those articles,) a 
period of four months, from November to March, 
during which he was legally capable of serving. 
It was even proposed to reelect him for this brief 
fragment of a year. But he felt it proper to dis- 
courage the suggestion. 3 

From these signal and most honorable proofs 
of the general satisfaction his conduct had given 
his constituents, it must not, however, be inferred 

1 Hen. Stat. vol. x. p. 164. but which I afterwards found to be 
9 In a manuscript letter of his a mistake, the vote being post- 
colleague, Mr. Joseph Jones, to poned until the bill had passed re- 
Mr. Madison, of the 25th of June, pealing the law which rendered 
1782, there is the following allusion yourself and J. J. ineligible." 
to the motives of the repeal of the 3 Madison Debates and Corre- 
disqualifying law. " I mentioned " spondence, vol. I. p. 540, and manu- 
(in a former letter) " the continu- script letter of E. Pendleton to J. 
ation of the old delegates by a vote, Madison, of the 9th of June, 1 783. 



516 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

that there was absolute unanimity in the senti- 
ments they implied. In the legislature of Vir- 
ginia there was at that time a party, though not 
a numerous one, which manifested an habitual 
jealousy and distrust of the national authorities, 
and all their leading measures. To those who 
were actuated by that feeling, Mr. Madison could 
not have been an acceptable representative • and 
they were ready enough to avail themselves of 
the rigors of a statutory ostracism to displace 
him. Mr. Edmund Randolph, in writing to him 
on the 20th of June, 1782, gives the following 
account of the abortive attempt then made to 
effect his exclusion, under the specious cover of 
an existing legal disqualification. 

"My last and preceding communications which 
spoke of certain manoeuvres, alluded to in your 
letter of the 11th instant, mentioned, I believe, 
that a design appeared to be formed against the 
reelection of you and myself to Congress. The 
attack was unexpected; and the secret sugges- 
tions, which Avere intended to injure, had had 
their fullest operation before it came to the 
knowledge of our friends. But it may be tri- 
umphantly said that the wicked and malignant 
did not dare to exclude from their most poison- 
ous reports a respect for our characters. You 
were assailed under the garb of friendship. It 
was lamented that the rigor of the law should 
cut off so valuable a servant from public employ- 
ment. And to say the truth, there was such a 



CLOSE ATTENTION TO PUBLIC DUTIES. 517 

fervency of compliment that it was unpleasant 
to distrust its sincerity. 

"I, too, was declared to be ineligible, after a 
preface overflowing with panegyric ; and, indeed, 
the manifesto of hostility never could wear a 
milder form. However, Patrick Henry propound- 
ed the question respecting my eligibility, for lie 
had been informed of their clandestine opera- 
tions. No man rose to assert the negative, ex- 
cept Richard Henry Lee. He was fulsome in 
commendation, as I was informed, and protested 
against every possibility of exception but from 
that quarter. He had no other coadjutor than 
the 'old squire.' 1 The Doctor" (Arthur Lee) 
"spoke in opposition to his brother, upon pretty 
much the same principle as that which actuates 
two Eastern delegates when they divide, namely, 
an affectation of candor." 

During this long and anxious term of public 
service, Mr. Madison was hardly ever absent from 
his seat in Congress. While other members, and 
his own colleagues, were frequently absent, and 
for months together, it does not appear that he 
allowed himself even a brief visit to his relatives 
in Virginia, with whom he continued to keep up 
an affectionate intercourse by letter. In a com- 
munication to his father, dated the 20th of May, 

1 This was the title by which sentation of Westmoreland, waa 
Richard Lee, the colleague of ordinarily known. 
Richard Henry Lee in the repre- 

VOL. I. 44 



518 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

1782, he thus expressed his strong and conscien- 
tious sense of representative duty. 

" It has at no time been more difficult for me 
to fix my probable return to Virginia. At pres- 
ent all my colleagues have left Congress except 
Colonel Bland ; and it is a crisis which calls for 
a full representation from every State. Anxious 
as I am to visit my friends, as long as I sus- 
tain a public trust I shall feel a principle which 
is superior to it [the indulgence of private 
wishes]. " 

Nor was this the only sacrifice incident to Mr. 
Madison's public service at this exigent epoch. 
The provision made by Virginia for the support 
of her delegates in Congress, though liberal in 
theory, w r as exceedingly precarious, and some- 
times, indeed, wholly illusory in practice. As the 
nature of that provision furnishes an illustration 
of the manners and customs of the time, and 
especially of the mode of living and expense 
which then prevailed in Virginia, it may not be 
without interest to the reader to give some ac- 
count of it. The act of Assembly on the subject 
declared that " the delegates shall be allowed the 
expense for such part of their families as they 
may severally incline to keep with them; pro- 
visions for necessary servants and horses, not ex- 
ceeding three servants and four horses for each; 
pay for house-rent and fuel;" and the farther 
sum of twenty dollars per diem, while in attend- 
ance on Congress, and two dollars for every mile 



PECUNIARY SACRIFICES. 519 

of travel, going and returning; but these last 
sums were payable in paper money, subject to 
the rates of depreciation of the day. 

After this provision, apparently so princely, the 
act rather ludicrously proceeds: "In order that 
the said delegates may always keep in mind that 
economy is expected from them by their coun- 
try, a general account of all their disbursements 
for housekeeping, as aforesaid, shall be transmit- 
ted by them quarterly to the auditor of public 
accounts, by whom a warrant is to be given on 
the treasurer to pay the amount out of the public 
moneys in his hands." l It often, and indeed gen- 
erally happened, that when the warrant was 
obtained on the treasurer, there was no public 
money in his hands to meet it, and the disap- 
pointed delegate was left to every variety of 
shifts and expedients to raise money from other 
quarters to defray his current expenses. 

Mr. Madison, being then a bachelor, occasioned 
a much lighter charge to the treasury of the 
State than most of his colleagues. He did not, 
probably, avail himself of the establishment pro- 
vided by law for the delegates to a greater ex- 
tent than a single servant, and one or two horses 
And yet, upon this comparatively modest scale 
of expense, he found himself often much embar 
rassed, and compelled to draw largely on his pri- 
vate resources. In a letter to his father of the 
12th of February, 1782, he thus describes his 
necessities : — 

i See Hen. Stat. vol. x. p. 1G3 



520 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

"The disappointment in forwarding the money 
by Mr. Brownlow has been sorely felt by me ; 
and the more so, as the legislature has made no 
provision for the subsistence of the delegates that 
can be relied on. I hope some opportunity will 
soon put it in your power to renew the attempt 
to transmit it, and that the delay will have made a 
considerable addition to it. Besides the necessity 
of this supply for the common occasions, I have 
frequent opportunities here of purchasing many 
scarce and necessary books at a fourth of the 
price which, if to be had at all, they will here- 
after cost me." 

Although the legislature, at their May session 
in 1782, made a new and different provision for 
their delegates, ("a more certain and adequ&ie 
one," it was declared to be,) by directing that, 
in lieu of all expenses, they should receive a 
fixed allowance of eight dollars per diem, oi he 
specie standard, "to be paid out of such public 
money as should thereafter be set apart and ; ap- 
propriated for that use," x it does not appear that / 
the new arrangement brought with it any sensi- 
ble relief to the pecuniary wants of the delegates 
It was through his friend Mr. Edmund Randolph, 
who resided at Richmond, that Mr. Madison car- 
ried on his intercourse with the treasurer o^.' the 
State for the needed but still unreliable supplies. 
The following specimens of that correspondence, 
while painting strongly the distresses of the del- 
egates, impart a dash of humor to the picture. 

1 See Hen. Stat. vol. xi. pp. 31, 32. 



FINANCIAL STRAITS OF THE DELEGATES. 521 

On the 27th of August, 1782, he says to his 
friend: "I cannot, in any way, make you more 
sensible of the importance of your kind remit- 
tances for me than by informing you that 1 have, 
for sonic time past, been a pensioner on the favor 
of Ilaym Salomon, a Jew broker." And on the 
24th of September he writes: "Your credit with 
Mr. Cohen, which procured me fifty pounds, with 
two hundred dollars transmitted by Mr. Ambler, 
(the treasurer,) have been of much service; but 
I am relapsing fast into distress. The case of 
my brethren is equally alarming." 

On the 8th of October he writes again : a The 
remittance to Colonel Bland is a source of hope 
to his brethren. I am almost ashamed to reit- 
erate my wants so incessantly to you ; but they 
begin to be so urgent that it is impossible to 
suppress them. The kindness of our little friend 
in Front Street, near the Coffee-House, is a fund 
which will preserve me from extremities; but I 
nevj: resort to it without great mortification, as 
he obstinately rejects all recompense. The price 
of money is so usurious that he thinks it ought 
to be extorted from none but those who aim at 
profitable speculations. To a necessitous delegate 
he gratuitously spares a supply out of his pri- 
vate stock." 

It was fortunate for the delegates that their 
public cares and straitened circumstances found 
some alleviation in social enjoyments among 
themselves. Of these no one had a keener relish, 

44* 



522 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

within the bounds of lawful indulgence, than Mr. 
Madison. With several of his colleagues from 
Virginia, and a few members from other States, 
he made an arrangement which admitted them 
into the accommodations of a private household. 
These gentlemen, with their families and the in- 
mates of the house, formed a cultivated and con- 
genial circle, in which Mr. Madison enjoyed a 
seasonable and pleasant relaxation from the occu- 
pations of his congressional life. 

The attractions of this circle were greatly en- 
hanced to him, during the last winter of his resi- 
dence in Philadelphia, by the presence of Mr. 
Jefferson, who, on his suggestion, had been again 
and unanimously appointed one of the commis- 
sioners to treat of peace, and was now at the 
seat of government to inform himself, from the 
public archives, of the condition and progress of 
the negotiations. To this new source of pleasure 
to Mr. Madison was added a yet stronger fascina- 
tion, in an attachment to an interesting and ac- 
complished young lady, daughter of an old friend 
of Mr. Jefferson, who was a co-signer with him 
of the Declaration of Independence. 1 This at- 
tachment, which promised at one time the most 
auspicious result, terminated at last in disappoint- 
ment. We cannot forbear to add the following 
extract of a letter addressed to him on the occa- 
sion by Mr. Jefferson, as connected with an event 
which is never without importance in the life of 

l General William Floyd, one of the delegates of New York. 



HUMOROUS VEIN OF MR. MADISON. 523 

a man of virtuous sensibilities, and as affording 
a touching proof of the intimate and fraternal 
sympathies which united the two friends. 

'•I sincerely lament," he said, "the misadven- 
ture which has happened, from whatever cause 
it may have happened. Should it he final, how- 
ever, the world still presents the same and many 
other resources of happiness, and you possess 
many within yourself. Firmness of mind and 
unintermitting occupation will not long leave you 
in pain. No event has been more contrary to 
my expectations, and these were founded on what 
I thought a good knowledge of the ground. But 
of all machines, ours is the most complicated and 
inexplicable." 1 

Among the qualities which distinguished Mr. 
Madison at this period, and indeed through his 
whole life, was a vein of quiet humor, which re- 
lieved the severity of his public labors, and lighted 
up with an inexpressible charm, in his moments 
of relaxation, the graver aspects of his character. 
Of this, an instance has been already given to 
the public in a joint and playful letter addressed 
by Ellery of Rhode Island and himself, amid 
the deep gloom and anxiety of the spring of 
1780, to their three colleagues, — Schuyler of 
New York, Matthews of South Carolina, and Pea 
body of New Hampshire, — then on a mission to 
headquarters to concert with the commander-in- 
ohief a plan of operations for the ensuing cam- 

i Manuscript letter of the 31st of August, 1783. 



524 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

paign. 1 It was by his genial disposition and social 
affinities he acquired that knowledge of the char- 
acteristic peculiarities of the different sections of 
the confederacy, which furnished him the many 
amusing and illustrative anecdotes he was wont, 
in after life, to entertain his friends with. 

After the close of his congressional service, he 
spent some weeks in Philadelphia, and arrived at 
his father's residence in Virginia in December, 
1783. This again became his home; and here, 
at the age of thirty-two years, he resumed those 
habits of close and systematic study which he 
formed in early life. His experience in Congress 
had, doubtless, made him sensible of the great 
value of legal knowledge to the statesman ; and 
after an interval of social and domestic recrea- 
tion, which he had so well earned by his public 
labors, he grappled resolutely with the black-letter 
terrors of the common law. In a letter to Mr. 
Edmund Randolph, of the 10th of March, 1784, 
he thus speaks of his undertaking : — 

" On my arrival here, which happened early in 
December, I entered, as soon as the necessary 
attentions to my friends admitted, on the course 
of reading which I have long meditated. Coke- 
Littleton, in consequence, and a few others from 
the same shelf, have been my chief society dur- 
ing the winter. My progress, which, in so short 
a time, could not have been great under the 

1 See Life of Ellery, in Sanderson's Lives of the Signers of Inde- 
pendence 



ENTERS UPON THE STUDY OF THE LAW. 525 

most favorable circumstances, has been much 
retarded by the want of some important books, 
and still more by some living oracle for occa- 
sional consultation." 

These legal studies, though interrupted, from 
time to time, by the public duties which were 
soon again devolved upon him, he continued to 
pursue for several years, as we learn from his 
subsequent correspondence with his friends. In 
a letter to the Marquis Lafayette, of the 20th 
of March, 1785, he sportively alludes to his' pur- 
suits, in contrast with the more agreeable occu- 
pations of some of their common friends. 

" I received a letter, a few days ago, from Mr. 
Mercer, written in the bosom of wedlock at Mr. 
Spriggs's ; another at the same time from Mon- 
roe, who was well at New York. I have nothing 
to say of myself, but that I have exchanged 
Richmond for Orange, as you will 'nave seen by 
the above date ; that I enjoy a satisfactory share 
of health ; that I spend the chief of my time in 
reading, and the chief of my reading, on law; 
that I shall hear, with the greatest pleasure, of 
your being far better employed ; and that I am, 
with the most affectionate esteem, yours." 

As late as the 27th of July, 1785, we find 
again an allusion to his legal studies, in a letter 
of that date to Mr. Eandolph. " I keep up my 
attention," he says, " as far as I can command 
my time, to the course of reading which I have 
of late pursued ; and shall continue to do so. 



526 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

I am, however, far from being determined ever 
to make a professional use of it. My wish is, 
if possible, to provide a decent and indepen- 
dent subsistence, without encountering: the diffi- 
culties I foresee in that line. Another of my 
wishes is to depend as little as possible on the 
labor of slaves. The difficulty of reconciling 
these views has brought into my mind several 
projects." 

Mr. Madison never did make any professional 
use of his legal attainments ; but on several oc- 
casions, in his public career, he gave such proof 
of the depth and accuracy of those attainments, 
even in the most abstruse and recondite parts of 
the law, as to leave no doubt that, if he had 
made it his profession, he could not have failed 
to attain the verv highest eminence in it. 1 

1 A remarkable instance of the together with Chancellor Taylor; 

accuracy and even subtlety of and of the latter, Mr. Philip C. 

Mr. Madi-on's legal knowledge, — Pendleton, General Breckenrido;e, 

abiding with him to a late period and General John G. Jackson, as 

of his life, — was frequently men- well as Mr. Jefferson himself, who, 

tinned by Mr. Jefferson. Both of it is known, was a most profound 

them were members of the board lawyer, and especially versed in 

of commissioners appointed by the all the learning of the law of real 

legislature of Virginia in 1818, to property. Among the considera- 

fix upon a proper location for the tions presented to influence, the 

Univer.-ity. The board consisted choice of the commissioners, was 

of twenty-one members, including the offer of a very valuable body 

some of the most distinguished of lands in the neighbourhood of 

judges and lawyers of the State. Lexington, for which a deed was 

Of the former, it is sufficient to tendered. The deed passed through 

mention Judges Roane and Cabell, the hands of the judges and law- 

of the court of appeals, and Judges yers without criticism. When Mr. 

Brockenbrough, Stuart, Holmes, Madison came to examine it, he 

and Dade, of the general court, modestly suggested a gucere, found- 



CORRESPONDENCE ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 527 

The part he had so recently acted in public 
affairs of the greatest national importance, was 
altogether too prominent and distinguished to 
admit of his devoting either his time or his 
thoughts wholly to professional studies. Ques- 
tions of great delicacy and difficulty were con- 
stantly springing up in the operations of our 
complex, federative system; and upon these Mr. 
Madison was appealed to as a sort of oracle, in 
his retirement, Of this description was a ques- 
tion which had just arisen, affecting Virginia 
especially in her relations with one of her sister 
States, and involving the practical construction 
of the fourth article of the confederation. 

That article required of each State the surrender 
of fugitives from justice, — charged "with treason, 
felony, or other high misdemeanour" committed 
within the jurisdiction of another State, — upon the 
demand of the executive authority of the latter. 
A citizen of Virginia w r as charged with having 
committed in South Carolina a violent and un- 
provoked assault upon a person who was a justice 
of the peace, during the sitting of the court of 
general sessions; and his surrender for trial was 
demanded, under this provision of the federal 
compact, of the executive of Virginia by the gov- 
ernor of South Carolina. The demand w r as re- 
ed upon some rather recondite doc- the board to be fatal to the validity 
trine with regard to the limitations of the deed, and it was so repre- 
of real estate, whether the deed sented to be in their report to the 
was good in law. The defect point- legislature, 
ed out was finally recognized by 



528 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ferred to Mr. Edmund Randolph, the attorney- 
general of the State, who gave a learned and 
elaborate opinion in writing against the surrender; 
mainly on the ground that the vague description 
of the offence, in the documents transmitted by the 
executive of South Carolina, did not necessarily 
constitute it a case of " high misdemeanour." He 
sent a copy of his opinion to Mr. Madison, to 
elicit his judgment upon the question. 

We give a few extracts from Mr. Madison's 
answer, dated "Orange, 10th of March, 1784," as 
showing the careful deliberation and enlarged 
views with which these questions of state were 
habitually revolved by him, whether in a private 
and irresponsible, or a public and official, posi- 
tion. 

" If I w r ere to hazard an opinion after yours, it 
would be that the respect due to the chief mag- 
istrate of a confederate State, enforced as it is 
by the articles of confederation, requires an ad- 
mission of the fact as it has been represented. If 
the representation be adjudged incomplete or 
ambiguous, explanations may certainly be called 
for; and if. on a final view of the charge, Vir- 
ginia should hold it not a casus foederis, she will 
be at liberty to withhold her citizen, (at least 
upon that ground.) as South Carolina will be to 
appeal to the tribunal provided for all contro- 
versies among the States." 

Then looking at the subject from the broad 
and elevated point of view from which he was 



■ CORRESPONDENCE ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 529 

accustomed to contemplate all such questions, after 
saying that "bis present view would admit few 
exceptions to the propriety of surrendering fugi- 
tive offenders," he declared it as his opinion that 
the peculiar and intimate relations subsisting be- 
tween the States of the American confederacy 
will be found to require an extension of the fed- 
eral agreement for the mutual surrender of fugi- 
tives to numerous cases below the grade of "high 
misdemeanour." 

" In a word," he says, " experience will show, 
if I mistake not, that the relative situation of 
the United States calls for a ' droit public ' much 
more minute than that comprised in the federal 
articles, and which presupposes much greater 
mutual confidence and amity among the socie- 
ties that are to obev it than the law that has 
grown out of the transactions and intercourse of 
jealous and hostile nations." 

His foresight was, a few years afterwards, jus- 
tified and fulfilled in the provisions of the new 
constitution, which, after the specification of 
a treason " and " felony," as in the articles of con- 
federation, added the general denomination of 
" other crime " instead of " high, misdemeanour," 
and extended the principle of extradition to a 
class of civil fugitives, for which some provision 
was rendered indispensably necessary by the va- 
rying domestic institutions of the different States. 

Among those who were in most intimate com- 
munication with Mr. Madison at this time, and 

vol. i. 45 



530 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

who most frequently and largely interchanged 
views with him on the doubtful questions arising 
in the operations of the government, was Mr. 
Jefferson, now a successor, as he had been the 
predecessor, of Mr. Madison in the national coun- 
cils. From his correspondence with Mr. Mad- 
ison, we learn the difficulties and delays that 
attended the ratification of the definitive treaty 
of peace by Congress, owing to the non-attend- 
ance of the requisite number of States. By some 
members it was contended that seven States were 
sufficient for the ratification. Mr. Jefferson and 
a majority of the members insisted that, without 
the assent of nine States, the act would be in- 
valid. The attendance of nine States was not 
obtained until the 14th of January, 1784, when 
the ratification was immediately consummated, 
but not in time, it was apprehended, to be ex- 
changed in Europe w r ithin the six months fixed 
by the treaty itself. 

During the anxious suspense of these ques- 
tions, and for the wdiole period, indeed, that Mr. 
Jefferson was with Congress at Annapolis, he was 
in almost constant correspondence with Mr. Mad- 
ison, and freely sought his opinions and reflec- 
tions on the political complications which were 
then so frequently occurring. To these calls, 
Mr. Madison, from his retirement, responded with 
promptitude and fulness. Gratifying as it is to 
remark the general accordance in the conclusions 
their minds had severally attained on these sub- 



INTERCOURSE WITH MR. JEFFERSON. 531 

jects, it is yet more so to observe the tone of 
affectionate frankness and cordiality which pre- 
vailed in their communications. After disposing 
of the various and thorny public questions with 
which their correspondence had been chiclly oc- 
cupied, Mr. Jefferson, in the close of a long letter 
of the 20th of February, 1784, devoted mainly 
to the discussion of some of those questions, 
fondly reverts to a scheme of personal friendship 
and happiness he had formed for their future 
intercourse. 

"I hope," he says, "you have found access to 
my library. I beg you to make free use of it. 
The steward is living there now, and of course 
will always be in the way. Monroe is buying 
land almost adjoining me. Short will do the 
same. What would I not give could you fall 
into the circle. With such a society, I could 
once more venture home, and lay myself up for 
the residue of life, — quitting all its contentions, 
which grow daily more and more insupportable. 

"Think of it. To render it practicable, only 
requires you to think it so. Life is of no value 
but as it brings us gratifications. Among the 
most valuable of these is rational societ}^. It in- 
forms the mind, sweetens the temper, cheers our 
spirits, and promotes health. There is a little farm 
of one hundred and forty acres adjoining me, and 
within two miles, all of good land, though old, 
with a small, indifferent house on it, — the whole 
worth not more than £250. Such an one might 



532 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

be a form of experiment, and support a little 
table and household. It is on the road to Orange, 
and so much nearer than I am. It is convenient 
enough for supplementary supplies from thence. 
Once more, think of it, and adieu." 

Mr. Madison's answer to this letter was dated 
the 16th of March, 1784. Having first reviewed, 
elaborately and exhaustively, the several public 
questions presented for his opinion, he responded 
as follows to the friendly personal wishes con- 
tained in Mr. Jefferson's letter : — 

"I know not, my dear sir, what to reply to 
the affectionate invitation which closes your let- 
ter. I subscribe to the justness of your general 
reflections. I feel the attractions of the partic- 
ular situation you point out to me. I cannot 
altogether renounce the prospect. Still less can 
I as yet embrace it. It is far from being im- 
probable that a few years may prepare me for 
giving such a destiny to my future life ; in which 
case the same, or some equally convenient spot, 
may be commanded by a little augmentation of 
price. But wherever my final lot may fix me, 
be assured that I shall ever remain, with the 
sincerest affection and esteem, your friend and 
servant." 

The ingenuous reader cannot but sympathize 
in the effusions of mutual confidence and affec- 
tion, and the yearnings for each other's society, 
by which these great men, amid their public 
cares, were thus early drawn together. Although 



TOLITICAL AND LITERARY STUDIES. 533 

Mr. Madison never acquired the little Sabine farm 
that was set before him in all the charms of 
Catonian simplicity;, yet, as his paternal residence 
in the comity of Orange, where he always lived, 
was within thirty miles of Monticello, and Mr. 
Monroe for many years resided with his family 
on the land which he had bought in the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the latter place, few day- 
dreams of human felicity have ever been more 
nearly fulfilled than that which Mr. Jefferson in- 
dulged for himself and his friends. 

In this same letter, Mr. Madison gave Mr. Jeffer- 
son a commission to purchase books for him, from 
which it will be seen what was the paramount 
object of patriotic anxiety and reflection that 
then, and for several years to come, occupied his 
thoughts. 

"I must leave to your discretion," he said, 
"the occasional purchase of rare and valuable 
books, disregarding the risk of duplicates. You 
know tolerably well the objects of my curiosity. 
I will only particularize my wish of whatever 
may throw light on the general constitution and 
droit public of the several confederacies which 
have existed. I observe in Boiraud's catalogue 
several pieces on the Dutch, the German, and 
the Helvetic. The operations of our own must 
render all such lights of consequence. Books on 
the law of nature and nations fall within the 
same remark." 

In another letter, addressed to Mr. Jefferson a 

45* 



534 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

year later, (27th of April, 1785,) when he was 
minister in Europe, Mr. Madison enlarged his 
commission for the purchase of books ; but the 
great American question — the right organiza- 
tion of a confederate republic — was still, it will 
be seen, uppermost in his thoughts and studies. 

" I thank you much," he says, " for your atten- 
tion to my literary wants. All the purchases 
you have made for me are such as I should 
have made for myself with the same opportu- 
nities. You will oblige me by adding to them 
the Dictionary, in 13 vols. 4 to., by Felice and 
others; 1 also De Thou, in French. If the util- 
ity of Moreri be not superseded by some later 
work, I should be glad to have him too. I 
am afraid, if I were to attempt a catalogue of 
my wants, I should not only trouble you beyond 
measure, but exceed the limits which other con- 
siderations ought to prescribe to me. I cannot, 
however, abridge the commission you were so 
kind as to take on yourself in a former letter, 
of procuring for me, from time to time, such 
books as may be ' either old and curious, or new 
and useful.' Under this description will fall those 
particularized in my former letters, to wit, trea- 
tises on the ancient or modern federal republics, 
on the law of nations, and the history, natural 
and political, of the New World ; to which I will 
add such of the Greek and Roman authors (where 

i Dictionary of Law, National, Civil, and Political, — otherwise called 
Code de VHumanite. 



AGAIN ELECTED TO STATE LEGISLATURE. 535 

they can be got very cheap) as arc worth having, 
and are not on the common list of school clas- 
sics," &c. &c. &c. &c. 

While Mr. Madison was laying this broad foun- 
dation of liberal and comprehensive studies to 
perfect the rare statesmanship, of which the first 
fruits had already been given to his country, he 
was summoned from his brief retirement to en- 
gage again in the active service of the State. At 
the annual election of members of the legislature 
in the month of April, 1784, he was called forth 
by the people of his native county to represent 
them in the House of Delegates. It was now 
eight years since he had been a member of that 
body ; and the theatre of action there presented 
was altogether unlike that on which, for the last 
four years, he had been arduously employed. 

Not only were the questions to be acted on, for 
the most part, of a different character, — though 
sometimes necessarily and closely connected with 
those of the national forum, — but the manner of 
treating them, and the agencies by which their 
decision was controlled, were strikingly contrasted. 
The more numerous composition of the House of 
Delegates of Virginia, as w r ell as the temperament 
of the people, gave far greater scope for the 
arts of oratory ; and this again secured a very 
decided lead to a few individuals, who, to the 
reputation of patriotism and long familiarity with 
public affairs, superadded the seductive power of 
eloquence. 



536 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

It so happened that the official service of Mr. 
Henry in the executive department of the State, 
and that of Mr. Richard Henry Lee in the Con- 
tinental Congress, expired in the same year, 1779. 
Both of them were immediately afterwards chosen, 
by their respective counties, members of the pop- 
ular branch of the legislature, in which, with very 
brief intervals, they had continued to serve ever 
since. Whether it was the emulation of oratory, 
or the effect of different original tendencies in 
their political principles and sympathies, they 
soon became rival and antagonist leaders in the 
House of Delegates, and were habitually arrayed 
against each other on almost all questions of 
public policy. 

On those which related more particularly to 
the internal policy of the State, while Mr. 
Henry on several occasions favored paper money, 
tender laws, stay laws, the postponement or re- 
mission of taxes, and a very indulgent, if not 
lax, system with regard to the enforcement of 
both public and private engagements and in the 
administration of justice generally, Mr. Lee was 
the declared and inflexible opponent of all these 
measures. Contrary to what might have been 
expected from the natural tendency of the re- 
spective systems pursued by them in State pol- 
itics, Mr. Henry, down to the period of which 
we are now speaking, had shown himself much 
more disposed to sustain and strengthen the fed- 
eral authority than Mr. Lee, who had manifested 



PATRICK HENRY AND R. II. LEE. 537 

a spirit of opposition to Congress and all its 
most prominent acts, ever since he left that body. 
Thus they became, for the time, the living and 
active exponents of two adverse political systems 
in both state and national questions. Opposing 
champions, — the rival pretensions of oratory made 
them, in some sort, the gladiators of the Assem- 
bly; and from the homage paid to their age and 
longer service, as well as from the power and 
attractions of their eloquence, the privileged role 
of leaders was, by general consent, accorded to 
them. 

They were both members of the House of Del- 
egates, with all the eclat and influence of their 
. traditional leadership, when Mr. Madison returned 
to it in 1784. At the same time were members, 
John Marshall, future chief justice of the United 
States, Spencer Roane, future president of the 
court of appeals of Virginia, Henry Tazewell, 
William Graj^son, John Taylor, and Wilson Cary 
Nicholas, future senators of the United States, 
John Breckenridge, future attorney-general of the 
United States, Joseph Jones, late colleague of Mr. 
Madison in Congress, and Braxton, Tyler, Stuart, 
Ronald, Thruston, Corbin, and Page, all men of 
unquestioned ability. But, for the most part, 
they were younger statesmen ; and deferring to 
the claims of the great popular and parliamen- 
tary leaders, they willingly stood aside when these 
veteran champions, with their burnished armour, 
entered the arena. 



538 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



NOTE. 

The intimate relations of Mr. Lee and Mr. Henry, previous to 
their return to the legislature in 1779-1780, and their subsequent cordial 
union in opposition to the federal constitution of 1788, have led some 
writers into the error of supposing that they had generally harmonized 
in their political views, and cooperated on all the great public questions 
of their time. (See Grigsby's Discourse, p. 145, and Life of R. H. Lee, 
vol. I. pp. 45, 46.) The representation in the text is, however, abun- 
dantly sustained by the contemporaneous correspondence on Mr. Mad- 
ison's files, as well as by other unquestionable testimony. 

Mr. Jones, in a letter to Mr. Madison of the 24th of November, 
1780, says: — 

" We have had a warm debate in the House upon a bill to explain 
and amend the act of the last session for funding the new bills of credit 
of Congress under the scheme of the 18th of March. The question 
agitated, whether those bills, as well as the two millions of State money 
issued last session, should be a tender in payment of debts; and de- 
termined that they should be a legal tender. Henry for the question, 
Richard Henry Lee against it; and both, aided by their auxiliaries, 
took up two days or nearly in discussing the question. Indeed, we 
lose a great deal of time in idle, unnecessary debate." 

In another letter to Mr. Madison, dated the 31st of May, 1783, he 
says : — 

" Since my last, the bill for postponing to 20th of November next 
the making distress for the taxes has passed the House of Delegates by 
a majority of 13, and was, the day before yesterday, assented to by the 
Senate. Hurtful and dangerous as this step will, I fear, prove, it, was 
warmly espoused by Mr. Henry, opposed by his antagonist, and every 
effort made to fix the day to an earlier period, but in vain." 

Mr. Edmund Randolph, in writing to Mr. Madison on the 1st of 
June, 1782, says (speaking of Mr. Jefferson) : — 

" His triumph might certainly be an illustrious one over his former 
enemies, were he to resume the legislative character; for in the con- 
stant division between the two leaders, Henry and Lee, he might in- 
cline the scale to whichever side he would." 

To these extracts, taken somewhat at random from Mr. Madison's 
files, may be added the testimony of another distinguished contempo- 
rary witness. Judge Roane, who afterwards married a daughter of 
Mr. Henry, was, as we have seen, a member of the House of Delegates 



RIVALRY OF THE TWO LEADERS. 539 

with him and Mr. Lee in 1783 and 1784. In a letter addressed to 
Mr. Wirt, (see Life of Henry, p. 249,) he says: — 

"I met with Patrick Henry in the Assembly of May, 1 7s.}. I also ] 
there met with Richard Henry Lee. I lodged with Mr. Lee one or two 
sessions, ami was perfectly acquainted with him, while I was yet a stran- 
ger to Mr. Henry. These two gentlemen were the great leaders in the. 
House of Delegates, and were almost constantly opposed. There were 
many other great men who belonged to that body; but, as orators, they 
cannot be named witli Henry and Lee." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Motives of Madison for returning to the State Legislature — Made 
Chairman of Committee on Commerce — Measures for promot- 
ing Commerce of the State — Concentration to particular Ports 
— Mr. Madison proposes Arrangement with Maryland respecting 
Jurisdiction and Navigation of the Potomac — Resolution moved 
by him for Appointment of Joint Commissioners of the two States, 
remote Cause of the Federal Convention — He introduces prepar- 
atory Measures for entering upon the Revision of the Laws — 
Sustains a Proposition for Revision of State Constitution — His 
Views on that Question — Proceedings of the Legislature upon 
the Subject — Measures affecting Religious Freedom — Assessment 
proposed, but not acted on — Question of Incorporation of Re- 
ligious Societies — Mr. Madison opposed to both — Questions of 
Federal Policy — Mr. Henry favors Invigoration of Federal Au- 
thority, with coercive Power in Congress — Resolution passed for 
vesting in Congress Power to prohibit Trade with Nations refus- 
ing Reciprocity — Execution of Treaty of Peace with regard to 
British Debts — Opposed by Mr. Henry — Proposition of Mr. 
Madison on the Subject — Honors to Washington — Mr. Madison 
takes a leading part in them — His eloquent Inscription for the 
Statue — General Washington and Mr. Madison exert themselves 
to obtain a Grant to Paine for his Revolutionary Services — Sub- 
sequent Ingratitude of Paine. 

Mr. Madison came into the legislature with no 
ambition of leadership. Animated with a sincere 



SERVICE IN STATE LEGISLATURE. 541 

and unaffected respect for the abilities and ser- 
vices of his seniors, his sole desire was to con- 
ciliate their support, as well as to enlist the 
cooperation of his younger and able associates, in 
favor of those objects of public interest which 
his reflections and experience had led him to 
consider of the highest importance to the welfare 
both of the State and of the Confederacy. lie 
has himself given to the world an impressive 
account of the considerations which induced him 
to yield to the renewed call of his fellow-citizens 
for his services in the legislature. 

"Having served," he says, "as a member of 
Congress through the period between March, 
1780, and the arrival of peace in 1783, I had 
become intimately acquainted with the public 
distresses and the causes of them. I had ob- 
served the successful opposition to every attempt 
to procure a remedy by new grants of power to 
Congress. I had found, moreover, that despair 
of success hung over the compromising principle 
of 1783 for the public necessities, which had been 
so elaborately planned and so impressively rec- 
ommended to the States. 

"Sympathizing, under this aspect of affairs, in 
the alarm of the friends of free government, at 
the threatened danger of an abortive result to 
the great, and perhaps last, experiment in its 
favor, I could not be insensible to the obligation 
to aid, as far as I could, in averting the calam- 
ity. With this view, I acceded to the desire of 

VOL. X. 46 



542 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

my fellow-citizens of the county that I should be 
one of its representatives in the legislature; 
hoping that I might there best contribute to in- 
culcate the critical posture to which the revolu- 
tionary cause was reduced, and the merit of a 
leading agency of the State in bringing about 
a rescue of the Union and the blessings of 
liberty staked on it from an impending catas- 
trophe." l 

Never losing sight of this, the great and para- 
mount object of his legislative mission, he devoted 
himself, with diligence and faithfulness, to every 
question which concerned the peculiar and do- 
mestic interests of Virginia. He was an active 
member of all the leading committees, and chair- 
man of the committee on commerce. The duty 
of this last committee was defined to be, " to 
take into consideration all matters and things 
relating to the trade, manufactures, and commerce 
of the Commonwealth, to report their proceed- 
ings thereupon to the House, and to recommend 
such improvements as, in their judgment, may be 
made therein." 

Mr. Madison had given much consideration, as 
his correspondence attests, even during the period 
of his service in Congress, to the commercial 
condition and interests of Virginia. In a letter 
of the 10th of December, 1783, written immedi- 
ately after his arrival at home, he makes the 
following remarks on the subject. 

1 See Madison Debates and Correspondence, vol. II. pp. 693, 694. 



COMMERCIAL CONDITION OF VIRGINIA. 543 

"The situation of the commerce of this coun- 
try, as far as I can learn, is even more deplorable 
than I had conceived. It cannot pay less to 
Philadelphia and Baltimore, if one may judge 
from a comparison of prices here and in Europe, 
than thirty or forty per cent, on all the exports 
and imports, — a tribute which, if paid into the 
treasury of the State, would yield a surplus above 
all its wants. If the Assembly should take any 
steps towards its emancipation, you will, no doubt, 
be apprised of them, as well as of their other 
proceedings from Richmond." 

The natural and most effectual remedy for this 
state of things, in the opinion of Mr. Madison, 
was to concentrate the trade of Virginia at one 
or two of her ports, and thus to establish, within 
her own limits, commercial marts where her ex- 
ports and imports would be collected in mass, 
and afterwards distributed to the ultimate con- 
sumer. This regulation was recommended by the 
farther consideration of breaking up the oppres- 
sive monopoly under which the trade of Virginia 
was conducted by British merchants and their 
factors, who, profiting of their ancient connec- 
tions in the country, carried their supplies up its 
numerous rivers, and entering into direct and 
isolated negotiations with the planters, and en- 
ticing them by the pernicious lure of long credits, 
controlled at will, and for their own advantage, 
the prices both of what they sold and what they 
bought. By restricting them to designated and 



544 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

public marts, where they would be brought into 
free and equal competition with the rest of the 
world, resorting to a common market of purchase 
and sale, it was thought that the system which, 
on the return of peace, still continued to enslave 
Virginia to the cupidity of the British trader, 
would receive an important check. 

An act for "restraining foreign vessels to cer- 
tain ports within the Commonwealth," 1 was finally 
passed in pursuance of these views, but not with- 
out encountering strenuous opposition. Mr. Mad- 
ison, writing to Mr. Jefferson, then at Paris, on 
the 3d of July, 1784, immediately after the ad- 
journment of the legislature, and giving him an 
account of its proceedings, says : — 

"We made a warm struggle for the establish- 
ment of Norfolk and Alexandria as our only 
ports, but were obliged to add York, Tappahan- 
nock, and Bermuda Hundred in order to gain 
anything, and to restrain to these ports foreign- 
ers only." 

Here, perhaps, is the true explanation of the 
causes which have contributed to frustrate, and 
may, for an indefinite time, yet frustrate the 
establishment of a great mart of foreign com- 
merce in Virginia. It is, apparently, the su- 
perabundance of her natural advantages, the 
number and consequent competition of her fine 
rivers and harbors, which prevent that cen- 
tralization of trade and capital, indispensable 

1 Hen. Stat. vol. xi. pp. 402-404. 



REMEDIES PROPOSED BY MR. MADISON. 545 

to constitute a great emporium. How different, 
in this respect, is the situation of the leading com- 
mercial State of the Union. Nature, by giving 
her but a single great river, and but a single 
maritime port, where that river meets the ocean, 
has, by a fiat far more powerful than legislative 
decrees, converged all her resources and connec- 
tions of trade, embracing the larger portion of 
the Union, to one grand, absorbing centre. If it 
shall be found that the multiplied bounties of 
nature have made diffusion, and not concentration, 
the commercial lot of Virginia, it is a condition 
of things not without important compensations 
in the more equal distribution of local benefits, 
while its disadvantages, in a general view, are 
now much lessened by the rapid and cheap in- 
tercommunications which exist among all the 
seats of trade and industry within the Union. 

The following extract of a letter addressed by 
Mr. Madison to Mr. Jefferson, on the 20th of 
August, 1784, presents so striking a view of the 
obstacles opposed to the policy of concentration 
on the one hand, and of the arguments which 
recommended it on the other, that it seems es- 
sential to a proper comprehension of this jDortion 
of the legislative and commercial history of the 
country to lay it before the reader. 

"The act which produces most agitation and 
discussion is that which restrains foreign trade 
to enumerated ports. Those who meditate a re- 
vival of it on the old plan of British monopoly 

46* 



546 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

and diffusive credit, or whose mercantile arrange- 
ments might be disturbed by the innovation, — 
with those whose local situations give them, or 
are thought to give them, an advantage in large 
vessels coming up the rivers to their usual sta- 
tions, — are busy in decoying the people into a 
belief that trade ought, in all cases, to be left to 
regulate itself; that to confine it to particular 
ports is to renounce the boon with which nature 
has favored our country; and that if one set of 
men are to be importers and exporters, another 
set to be carriers between the mouths and heads 
of the rivers, and a third retailers, trade, as it 
must pass through so many hands, all taking a 
profit, must in the end come dearer to the peo- 
ple than if the simple plan should be continued 
which unites these branches in the same hands. 
"These and other objections, though unsound, 
are not altogether implausible ; and being propa- 
gated with more zeal and pains by those who 
have an interest to serve, than proper answers 
are given by those who regard the general in- 
terest only, make it very possible that the meas- 
ure may be rescinded before it is to take effect. 
Should it escape such a fate, it will be owing to 
a few striking and undeniable facts ; namely, that 
goods are much dearer in Virginia than in 
the States where trade is drawn to a general 
mart; that even goods brought from Philadelphia 
and Baltimore to Winchester, and other western 
and southwestern parts of Virginia, are retailed 






REMEDIES PROPOSED BY MR. MADISON. 547 

cheaper than those imported directly from Europe 
are sold on tide water ; that, generous as the 
present price of our tobacco appears, the same 
article has currently sold fifteen or twenty per 
cent., at least, higher in Philadelphia, where, 
being as far from the ultimate market, it cannot 
be intrinsically worth more ; that scarce a single 
vessel from any part of Europe, other than the 
British dominions, comes into our ports, whilst 
vessels from so many other parts of Europe re- 
sort to other parts of America, — almost all of 
them, too, in pursuit of the staple of Virginia." 

As Mr. Madison anticipated, efforts were made 
to repeal this act at the session of 1785-1786, 
and again at that of 1786-1787. Those efforts 
were defeated by the firmness and perseverance 
of its original friends, who were not able, how- 
ever, to prevent successive additions to the list 
of enumerated ports. Such was the power of 
local considerations, combined with the interested 
views of a foreign mercantile monopoly, in oppo- 
sition to the plans of a far-seeing and statesman- 
like policy. 1 

1 The interest and importance Boston are spreading to New York 

of the subject induce us to sub- and Philadelphia. Whether they 

join yet another extract from Mr. will reach Virginia or not, I am 

Madison's correspondence of this unable to say. If they should, 

period, taken from a letter ad- they must proceed from a different 

dressed by him to Mr. Monroe, interest, — from that of the plant- 

(then a member of the Continental ers, not that of the merchants. 

Congress,) on the 21st of June, The present system here is as fa- 

1785. vorable to the latter, as it is ruin- 

" I observe in a late newspaper ous to the former. Our trade was 

that the commercial discontents of never more completely monopo- 



548 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



Another object, intimately connected with the 
commercial interests of Virginia, early attracted 
the attention of Mr. Madison. The river Poto- 
mac was the boundary between Maryland and 
Virginia. The charter to Lord Baltimore had 
defined the boundary to be along the southern 
shore of the river ; and, by the constitution of 
1776, Virginia had released to Maryland all the 
territory embraced within that charter, "with all 
the rights of property, jurisdiction, and govern- 
ment, and all other rights whatsoever which 
might at any time heretofore have been claimed 

lized by Great Britain, when it was lishing a Philadelphia or a Balti- 
under the direction of the British more * among ourselves, as one 
Parliament, than it is at this mo- indispensable step towards relief; 
ment. But as our merchants are and the difficulty is not a little in- 
ahnost all connected with that creased by the pains taken by the 
country, and that only, and as we merchants to prevent such a ref- 
have neither ships nor seamen of ormation, and by the opposition 
our own, nor likely to have any in arising from local views. I have 
the present course of things, no been told that Arthur Lee paved 
mercantile complaints are heard, the way to his election in Prince 
The planters are dissatisfied, and William by promising that, among 
with reason ; but they enter little other things, he would overset the 
into the science of commerce, and port bill. Mr. Jefferson writes me 

that the port bill has been pub- 
lished in all the gazettes in Eu- 
rope, with the highest approbation 
everywhere except in Great Brit- 
ain. It would, indeed, be as sur- 
prising if she should be in favor 



rarely, of themselves, combine in 
defence of their interests." 

Then stating some Avell-known 
facts to show how much higher 
were the prices of Virginia prod- 
uce in Northern markets than in 
her own, as well as how much of it, as it is that any among our- 
cheaper foreign merchandise was selves should be against it. I see 
to be had there, he proceeds, — no possibility of engaging other 

" It is difficult, notwithstand- nations in a rivalship with her, 
ing, to make them [the planters] without some such regulation of 
sensible of the utility of estab- our commerce." 

* By concentrating our commerce at Alexandria and Norfolk, the object of the port 
bill 



JURISDICTION OVER POTOMAC RIVER. 549 

by her, except the free navigation and use of 
the rivers Potomac and Pohomoke." Mr. Madi- 
son was apprehensive that the broad and general 
terms in which this surrender of the rights of 
jurisdiction and government was made to Mary- 
land, might be interpreted into a total relinquish- 
ment by Virginia of any jurisdiction over the 
Potomac River, and thus a fatal door be opened 
for the violation or evasion of her port regula- 
tions upon that important channel of commerce. 

Mr. Jefferson, being then at Annapolis as one 
of the delegates of Virginia in Congress, Mr. 
Madison, in a letter to him of the 16th of March, 
1784, called his attention to this subject, that he 
might sound the sentiments of the Maryland del- 
egates with regard to it, and ascertain what pros- 
pect there was of an amicable adjustment of the 
question. 

"I was told," he says, "on my journey along 
the Potomac, of several flagrant evasions which 
had been practised with impunity and success by 
foreign vessels which had loaded at Alexandria. 
The jurisdiction of half the rivers ought to have 
been expressly reserved. The terms of the sur- 
render are the more extraordinary, as the patents 
of the Northern Neck place the whole river Po- 
tomac within the government of Virginia ; so 
that we were armed with a title both of prior 
and posterior date to that of Maryland. What 
will be the best course to repair the error, — 
whether to extend our laws upon the river, 



550 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

making Maryland the plaintiff, if she chooses to 
contest their authority, — to state the case to 
her at once, and propose a settlement by nego- 
tiation, — or to propose a mutual appointment of 
commissioners for the general purpose of pre- 
serving a harmony and efficacy in the regula- 
tions on both sides? 

"The last mode squares best with my present 
ideas. It can give no irritation to Maryland ; it 
can weaken no plea of Virginia ; it will give 
Maryland an opportunity of stirring the question, 
if she chooses ; and will not be fruitless if Mary- 
land should admit our jurisdiction. If I see the 
subject in its true light, no time should be lost 
in fixing the interest of Virginia. The good hu- 
mor into which the cession of the back lands 
must have put Maryland, forms an apt crisis for 
any negotiations which may be necessary. You 
will be able probably to look into her charter 
and laws, and to collect the leading sentiments 
relative to the matter." 

Mr. Jefferson replied to this letter on the 25th 
of April. "I like," he said, "the method you 
propose of settling at once with Maryland all 
matters relative to the Potomac. To introduce 
this the more easily, I have conversed with Mr. 
Stone [one of their delegates] on the subject, 
and finding him of the same opinion, have told 
him I would by letters bring the subject forward 
on our part. They will consider it, therefore, as 
originated by this conversation." 



ARRANGEMENT WITH MARYLAND PROPOSED. 551 

The matter being thus put in train by Mr- 
Madison previous to the meeting of the legisla- 
ture, he pursued it when that body assembled. 
The following resolution introduced by him (in 
blank as to names), was adopted by the House of 
Delegates on the 28th of June, and was concur- 
red in two days afterwards by the Senate. 

"Whereas, great inconveniences are found to 
result from the want of some concerted rejnda- 
tions between this State and the State of Mary- 
land touching the jurisdiction and navigation of 
the river Potomac, — 

"Resolved, That George Mason, Edmund Ran- 
dolph, James Madison, Jr., and Alexander Hen- 
derson, Esquires, be appointed commissioners, and 
that they or any three of them do meet such 
commissioners as may be appointed on the part 
of Maryland, and, in concert with them, frame 
such liberal and equitable measures concerning 
the said river as may be mutually advantageous 
to the two States, and that they make report 
thereof to the General Assembly. 

"Resolved, That the executive be requested to 
notify the above appointment, with the object 
of it, to the State of Maryland, and desire its 
concurrence in the proposition." 1 

It was this essay, originated by Mr. Madison, 
to establish, by mutual concert, common regula- 
tions of navigation and trade between two con- 
terminous States, which led, as we shall hereafter 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, May session, 1784, pp. 84 and 89. 



552 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

see, to the call of the convention at Annapolis 
for considering the establishment of an uniform 
system of commercial regulations among all the 
Stales; and that produced the general convention 
of Philadelphia, whose proceedings terminated in 
the present constitution of the United States. 
As the first step in a connected series of move- 
ments which conducted the country to so happy 
a consummation, we have thought its history 
required the development we have here given 
it. 

It had been the intention of Mr. Madison, in 
connection with this subject, to bring forward a 
proposition for improving the navigation of the 
upper parts of the Potomac River, as one of the 
principal channels by which the trade of the 
West was to be drawn into Virginia ; and he de- 
sired especially to associate the name and influ- 
ence of Washington, in some becoming manner, 
with an enterprise of so much grandeur. In the 
letter to Mr. Jefferson of the 3d of July, 1784, 
already referred to, written after the close of the 
first session of the legislature for that year, he 
says : " I found no opportunity of broaching a 
scheme for opening the navigation of the Poto- 
mac, under the auspices of General Washington." 
But to this object his attention was earnestly 
given at the ensuing session ; and he had then 
the happiness of carrying through the legislature, 
with the powerful aid and cooperation of Gen- 
eral Washington himself, a comprehensive and 



REVISION OF THE LAWS. 



553 



well considered system of internal improvements 
for the whole State. 1 

After disposing of these questions involving 
the material interests of the State, Mr. Madison 
turned his attention to ameliorations of her civil 
and political system. One of the earliest meas- 
ures adopted by Virginia, after the formation of 
her republican constitution in 1776, was the ap- 
pointment of a committee of revisors, of which 
Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Pendleton, and Mr. Wythe 
were the acting members, for the purpose of re- 
viewing the entire body of her laws then in 



1 Tt was in the correspondence 
of this period between Mr. Jeffer- 
son and Mr. Madison that the first 
suggestion appears of entering up- 
on these great works, under the 
auspices of General Washington's 
name and direction. How entirely 
Mr. Jefferson appreciated their 
vast importance and consequences 
in the future, and how earnestly 
he desired to see General Wash- 
ington connected with them, as ob- 
jects worthy his patriotism and 
fame, is shown by a letter ad- 
dressed to Mr. Madison as early 
as the 20th of February, 1 784. 

" The Ohio and its branches," 
he says, " which head up against 
the Potomac, afford the shortest 
water communication by 500 miles 
of any which can be got between 
the Western waters and the At- 
lantic, and of course promise us 
almost a monopoly of the Western 
and Indian trade. I think the 
opening of this navigation is an 



object on which no time is to be 
lost. Pennsylvania is attending to 
the Western commerce." After 
mentioning what Pennsylvania was 
then doing to secure the great 
jorize, he proceeds : " Could not 
our Assembly be induced to lay a 
particular tax which should bring 
in £5,000 or £ 10,000 a year, to be 
applied till the navigation of the 
Ohio and Potomac is opened, then 
James River, and so on, through 
the whole successively. General 
Washington has that of the Poto- 
mac much at heart. The superin- 
tendence of it would be a noble 
amusement in his retirement, and 
leave a monument of him as long 
as the waters should flow. I am 
of opinion he would accept of the 
direction as long as the money 
should be to be employed on the 
Potomac; and the popularity of 
his name would carrv it through 
the Assembly." Manuscript let- 
ter. 



VOL. I. 



47 



554 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

force, — proposing such changes as should appear 
necessary to adapt them to her new institutions, 
— and digesting the whole in the form of bills for 
the deliberate consideration of a future legisla- 
ture. The arduous labors of the committee were 
completed early in 1779, and were embraced in 
one hundred and twenty-six bills, which they re- 
ported to the General Assembly at the May ses- 
sion of that year. 

No opportunity had been found, amid the dis- 
tractions and exigencies of the war, to enter 
systematically upon the important work of con- 
summating this revision of the laws. On the 
return of peace, it presented itself as one of the 
first and most essential objects of the statesman's 
care. Mr. Madison took the lead in it. But 
deeming it an indispensable preliminary to legis- 
lative action on a scheme " which proposed such 
various and material changes in our legal code," 
that the fullest opportunity should be afforded 
for its examination, and that a knowledge of its 
provisions should be " diffused throughout the 
community," he offered a resolution, in which 
those considerations were set forth, directing a 
number of copies of the report to be printed for 
distribution in the several counties of the State, 
as well as for supplying the members of the leg- 
islative, executive, and judiciary departments of 
the government. After the adoption of the res- 
olution, the further prosecution of the work was 
deferred to the next meeting of the legislature. 



REVISION OF STATE CONSTITUTION. 555 

Mr. Madison's views of reform extended also 
to the constitution of the State ; more, it would 
seem, with a view to place it on an authentic 
and unequivocal basis of popular assent than to 
remove mere theoretical delects. The constitu- 
tion of 1770 had been framed at a crisis of great 
public anxiety, and in the midst of national 
emergencies of a very pressing character. The 
body from which it proceeded, having received 
no express power from the people to establish 
a permanent form of government, — though such 
power was strongly implied from the circum- 
stances under which it was chosen, — the para- 
mount authority of the instrument, as a supreme 
law, was constantly exposed to be called in ques- 
tion, and was actually questioned by men of great 
weight in the public councils. 

The habitual reverence of Mr. Madison for the 
public will, as the only legitimate basis on which 
republican institutions can rest, made him de- 
sirous that the fundamental law of Virginia 
should be clothed with that highest sanction, in 
a way which should admit of no doubt. He fa- 
vored, therefore, the call of a convention with 
full power from the people to establish a consti- 
tution ; which convention, when assembled, would 
either ratify the existing government as it was, 
or use the occasion to make such amendments 
in it as to bring its provisions into closer con- 
formity with the theoretical rules of political 
Bcience. These appear to have been his leading 



556 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

views. He was neither an agitator nor a vision- 
ary in the cause. 

In writing to Mr. Jefferson on the 15th of 
May, 1784, a few clays after the meeting of the 
legislature, and referring to the project of a revis- 
ion of the State constitution, he says : " Whether 
any experiment will be made this session, is un- 
certain. Several members, with whom I have 
casually conversed, give me more encouragement 
than I had indulged. As Colonel Mason remains 
in private life, the expediency of starting the 
idea will depend much on the part to be ex- 
pected from Richard Henry Lee and Mr. Henry." 

In another letter to Mr. Jefferson dated the 
3d of July, immediately after the adjournment 
of the legislature, he gives the following history 
of what was done on the subject, and of his own 
part in the proceedings : — 

u A trial was made for a State convention ; but 
in a form not the most lucky. The adverse 
temper of the House, and particularly of Mr. 
Henry, had determined me to be silent on the 
subject. But a petition from Augusta having, 
among other things, touched on a reform of the 
government, and Richard Henry Lee arriving 
with favorable sentiments, we thought it might 
not be amiss to stir the matter. Mr. Stuart, 
from Augusta, accordingly proposed to the com- 
mittee of ' propositions and grievances ' the res- 
olutions reported to the House, as per Journal. 
Unluckily, Mr. Lee was obliged by sickness to 






VIEWS OF THOSE WHO FAVORED IT. 557 

leave us the day before the question came on in 
committee of the whole ; and Mr. Henry showed 
a more violent opposition than we had expected. 
The consequence was that, after two days debate, 
the report was negatived ; and the majority, 
not content with stopping the measure at pres- 
ent, availed themselves of their strength to put 
a supposed bar on the Journal against a future 
possibility of carrying it. The members for a 
convention with full powers were not consider- 
able in number, but included most of the young 
men of education and talents. A great many 
would have concurred in a convention for speci- 
fied amendments ; but they were not disposed to 
be active, even for such a qualified plan." 

As the resolutions which were reported by the 
committee of " propositions and grievances," em- 
body very clearly and succinctly the views of 
Mr. Madison, and others who favored a conven- 
tion, we insert them for the information of the 
reader. 

"Resolved, That such other part of the said 
petition as prays for a reformation of the gov- 
ernment of this Commonwealth is reasonable ; 
that the ordinance of the convention, commonly 
called the constitution, does not rest upon an 
authentic basis, and was no more than a tempo- 
rary organization of government for preventing 
anarchy, and pointing our efforts to the two 
principal objects, of war against our then invaders, 
and peace and happiness among ourselves ; but 

47* 



558 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

this, like all other acts of legislation, being sub- 
ject to change by subsequent legislatures, pos- 
sessing equal power with themselves, should now 
receive those amendments which time and trial 
have suggested, and be rendered permanent by 
a power superior to that of the ordinary legis- 
lature. 

u Resolved, That an ordinance pass, recommend- 
ing to the good people of this Commonwealth the 
choice of delegates to meet in general convention, 
with powers to form a constitution of government 
to which all laws, present and future, should be 
subordinate; provided, that the present govern- 
ment shall remain in every respect as it now is, 
until such constitution shall be finally settled 
and actually substituted." 1 

These resolutions were committed to a com- 
mittee of the whole House on the state of the 
Commonwealth, where they were the subject of 
the two days' animated debate mentioned by 
Mr. Madison. That committee made a report, 
which was concurred in by the House by a vote 
of 57 to 42, and which, by its tone of firmness 
and adherence to existing institutions, recalls the 
"nohmrus leges Anglice miitare" of the old bar- 
ons in the Parliament of Merton, and is a faithful 
and instructive exemplification of the conservative 
temper and character of the people of Virginia 
of that day. It was in these words : — 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates of Virginia, May session, 1784, 
p. 55. 



REJECTION OF THE PROPOSITION. 559 

"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee that so much of the petition from Au- 
gusta county as relates to an alteration of the 
constitution or form of government ought to be 
rejected, such a measure not being within the 
province of the House of Delegates to assume ; 
but, on the contrary, it is the express duty of 
the representatives of the people, at all times and 
on all occasions, to preserve the same inviolate, 
until a majority of all the free people of the 
Commonwealth shall direct a reform thereof." ] 

This decision of the legislature was followed 
by forty-five years of continued and, in general, 
contented acquiescence in the constitution of 
1776 by the people, and of recognition of its 
authority by the various departments of the gov- 
ernment, which amply supplied any technical 
defect in its origin. The Commonwealth, under 
its auspices, enjoyed a reign of public virtue and 
of practical and well-ordered freedom which, in 
spite of theoretical criticisms, future times will 
look back to with gratitude and respect, if not 
with envy and regret. 2 

1 See Journal of House of Del- of the reasons which determined 
egates of Virginia, May session, him in favor of the proposition, 
1784, p. 70. we subjoin them here, precisely as 

2 Among Mr. Madison's papers we find them. 

we find the notes of the speech ..„ . ■ _ .. , 

r " Nature of Constitution exam d - Seo 

made by him on the proposed re- Mass . p. 7. 8. 15. 16. N. Y. p. 63. Pen* p. 
vision of the constitution. They 85. 86. Del. p. 106. N. C. p. 146. 150. S. C. 
are very brief and condensed. As p - m Ge0 - p ' m 

i c !_• i • i i j.\ " Convention of 1776, without due power 

a sample of his lucid order in the . , F 

1 from people. 

arrangement of his thoughts for de- „ L pMged ordinance for Const „ on rec . 

bate, and as exhibiting an outline ommendation of Conga of 15 May, prior to 



560 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



The question of religious freedom, with which 
Mr. Madison had been so much and so earnestly 
occupied in the earlier stages of his career, met 
him again on his return into the councils of the 
State. Petitions were presented to the legisla- 
ture, alleging a decay of public morals, and pro- 
posing, as the most appropriate remedy, a general 
assessment upon the people for the support of 



religious teachers. 



Among the standing commit- 



decln of Independence ; as was done in N. H 
p. 1. and N. J. p. 78. 84. 

"2. passed from impulse of necessity — 
see last clause of the preamble. 

•• 3. before independence declared by 
Congs. 

•• 4. power from people no where pretend- 
ed. 

" 5. other ordinances of same session 
deemed alterable, — as relative to senators 
— oaths — salt. 

" 6. provision for case of West Augusta 
in its nature temporary. 

'• 7. convention make themselves branch 
of the Legislature. 
" Constitution, if so to be called defective — 

" 1. in a union of powers, which is tyran- 
ny, Montesqu- 

'■ 2. Executive department dependent on 
legislature. 1. for salary. 2. for character essentially different from Mr. Jef- 



" Constitution rests on acquiescence, a 
bad basis. 

" Revision during war improper — on re- 
turn of peace, decency requires surrender 
of power to people. 

" No danger in referring to the people, 
who already exercise an equivalent power. 

" If no change be made in the constitu 
tion, it is advisable to have it ratified, and 
secured against the doubts and imputations 
under which it now labours." 

Mr. Madison's opinions on the 
constitution of Virginia, with re- 
gard to the right of suffrage, the 
mode of appointment and tenure 
of the judiciary, and other ques- 
tions of internal organic law, were 



in triennial expulsion. 3. expensive. 4. may 
be for life contrary to art. 5. of Declaration 
of rights. 

" 3. Judiciary dependent for amt of salary. 

"4. Privileges and wages of members of 
Legislature unlimited and undefined. 

" 5. Senate badly constituted and im- 
properly barred of the originating of laws. 

"6. equality of representation not pro- 
vided for — see N. Y. p. 65. S. C. p. 165. 

» 7. Impeachments of great moment and opinions Oil these questions, ex- 
oii bad footing. pressed about this time, see his let- 

" 8. county courts seem to be fixed, p. ter to Mr j Q ] m Brown of Kcn- 
143. 144 — Also General court. 



ferson's, — marking not merely the 
common difference between theory 
and practice, but important differ- 
ences as to the theory itself of a 
well-balanced republic, guarded, 
on every side, against the danger 
of oppression and abuse. For his 



" 9. Habeas corpus omitted. 

• 10. No mode of expounding Constitu- 
tion, and nf course, no check to Genl As- 
sembly. 

" 11. Right of suffrage not well fixed — 
qua?rc if popish recusants &c. not disfran- 
chised. 



tucky, dated 23d of August, 1785, 
and his observations on Mr. Jeffer- 
son's " Draught of a Constitution," 
addressed to the same gentleman 
in October, 1788. 



QUESTIONS TOUCHING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 561 

tees of the House of Delegates, at that time, 
was a committee charged " with all matters relat- 
ing to religion and morality," and denominated 
"the committee of religion." To that commit- 
tee were referred the above-mentioned peti- 
tions; and in a short time they reported that 
the suggestion of the petitioners was, in their 
opinion, reasonable and expedient. Mr. Madison. 
in giving an account, at the time, of the proceed- 
ings of the legislature to a correspondent then 
absent from the country, says, " The friends of 
this measure did not choose to try their strength 
in the House." The report of the committee 
was, therefore, not acted upon during that ses- 
sion of the legislature ; but the question was re- 
newed at the succeeding session, and became 
then, as we shall see, the subject of high and 
solemn debate. 

Petitions were also presented from the Baptist, 
Presbyterian, and Protestant Episcopal churches, 
— the two former asking a removal of all re- 
maining distinctions in favor of the Episcopal 
church, and that "religious freedom be estab- 
lished upon the broad basis of perfect political 
equality;" and the last demanding the repeal of 
certain laws which restrained, as they alleged, 
their power of self-government, and praying for 
an act of incorporation to enable them to hold 
their property securely, and to regulate their 
own spiritual concerns. 1 The committee of re- 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates of Virginia, May session, 
1784, pp. 20, 21, and 36. 



562 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ligion, to whom these petitions were referred, re- 
ported the demands of all of them to be reason- 
able, and particularly that the applications made 
by the clergies of both the Episcopal and Pres- 
byterian churches, for the incorporation of their 
respective societies, were so ; and that " like incor- 
porations ought to be extended to all other relig- 
ious societies within this Commonwealth, which 
may apply for the same." 1 

It does not appear, however, that a bill was 
actually brought in for the incorporation of any 
other church than the Episcopal. This, when re- 
ported, was committed to a committee of the 
whole House, and occasioned warm discussions. 
Mr. Madison, in the letter cited above, gives the 
following account of it, and of its reception. 

"The Episcopal clergy introduced a notable 
project for reestablishing their independence of 
the laity. The foundation of it was that the 
whole body should be legally incorporated, in- 
vested with the present property of the church, 
made capable of acquiring indefinitely, empow- 
ered to make canon and by-laws not contrary to 
the laws of the land ; and incumbents, when once 
chosen by the vestries, to be irremovable other- 
wise than by sentence of the convocation. Ex- 
traordinary as such a project was, it was pre- 
served from a dishonorable death by the talents 
of Mr. Henry. It lies over for another session." 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates of Virginia, May session, 
1784, p. 43. 



QUESTIONS OF FEDERAL POLICY. 50 3 

It is shown by the Journal of the House that 
this bill, after being debated two days in com- 
mittee of the whole, was specially assigned to 
the second Monday in November, at the ensuing 
session, to be again considered in the same com- 
mittee. The proceedings upon it at that time, 
and the part then taken by Mr. Madison with 
regard both to it and the proposition of a gen- 
eral assessment, will hereafter demand our atten- 
tion. 

The questions of federal policy brought before 
the legislature at this session were, for the most 
part, acted upon in. a spirit of great liberality, 
and with unusual promptitude. The proposed 
amendment of the eighth article of the confedera- 
tion, — which formed a part of the "revenue plan" 
adopted by Congress on the 18th of April, 1783, 
and by which the whole number of free white 
inhabitants and three fifths of all others was to 
be substituted for the value of lands and their 
improvements as the rule for apportioning fede- 
ral burdens among the States, — had not hitherto 
been acted upon in Virginia. It was now taken 
up at an early period of the session, and acceded 
to by a general vote. At the same time, as it 
was uncertain whether the amendment would be 
accepted by all the other States, it was resolved 
that immediate measures should be taken to ob- 
tain and transmit to Congress the information 
they had called for to enable them to fix the 
valuation of lands and their improvements in the 



564 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

several States, required by the existing rule of 
apportionment under the articles of confederation. 
Appropriate acts were passed, during the session, 
for carrying both of these resolutions into effect. 1 

A resolution was then passed, declaring that, 
until arrangements shall be completed for appor- 
tioning among the States the common debts and 
charges of the confederacy by one or other of 
the above-mentioned rules, " the preservation of 
justice and the national character" demand that 
all requisitions, which may, from time to time, be 
made upon the States by Congress for discharg- 
ing the debts incurred during the war or for 
defraying the ordinary expenses of government, 
— whether apportioned by either of the said 
rules, or by such other temporary rule as may 
be judged more equitable, — should be faithfully 
complied with. To this was added another res- 
olution of unwonted vigor in favor of the fed- 
eral authority. It was in the following words : — 

"Resolved, That the delegates representing this 
State in Congress ought to be instructed to urge 
in Congress all measures necessary for accelerat- 
ing; a fair and final settlement of the accounts 
subsisting between the United States and indi- 
vidual States ; and that whenever such settle- 
ment shall have been completed, a payment of 
the balance appearing thereupon to be due" (or 
estimated by Congress to be due, hi case of ob- 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, p. 11, and Hen. Stat. vol. xi. 
pp. 401, 402, and 415-417. 



COERCIVE POWER IN CONGRESS. 5G5 

struction or failure of a definite rule of settlement, 
as a subsequent resolution provided) "ought to 
be enforced, if necessary, by such distress on the 
property of the defaulting States or of their cit- 
izens, as by the United States, in Congress assem- 
bled, may be deemed adequate and most eligible." 1 

This resolution of the House of Delegates of 
Virginia, implying and recognizing the preexist- 
ence of a coercive power in Congress with re- 
gard to the States, and invoking its exercise, has 
been considered to be the offspring of Mr. Henry. 
As the assertion was made to his . face, and not 
contradicted, it may be assumed to be true. 2 It 
is rendered the more probable by the contempo- 
rary evidence which Mr. Madison's correspond- 
ence affords of Mr. Henry's general views, at that 
time, in relation to the federal authority. In 
writing to Mr. Jefferson on the 15th of May, 1784, 
four days before the adoption of this resolution, 
he says : " The latter [Mr. Henry] arrived yes- 
terday; and, from a short conversation, I find 
him strenuous for invigorating the federal gov- 
ernment, though without any precise plan." 

A resolution was also adopted, declaring that 
Congress ought to be invested, for the term of 
fifteen years, with the power of prohibiting the 
vessels of any nation with which no commercial 
treaty had been formed from trading with any 

1 Journal of House of Dele- 2 See Robertson's Debates of 
gates, May session, 1784, pp. 11 Virginia Convention of 1 788. Al- 
and 12. so, ante, p. 303. 
vol. i. 48 



566 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of the States of the confederacy; and with the 
further power of prohibiting foreigners, unless 
expressly authorized by treaty to do so, from 
importing into the United States any goods, 
wares, or merchandise not the produce or man- 
ufacture of the country, of which they are citi- 
zens or subjects. This resolution was hi exact 
pursuance and fulfilment of a recommendation 
which had been made by Congress on the 30th 
of April, 1784, as the most efficient means of 
countervailing the illiberal policy manifested by 
Great Britain, since the reestablishment of peace, 
in excluding the vessels of the United States 
from the trade with her West India islands. 1 
Virginia had, by an act passed in the autumn 
of 1783, already taken the initiative in the same 
line of action, by authorizing and inviting Con- 
gress, so far as depended on her, to prohibit the 
importation of the produce of the British West 
India islands into the United States in British 
vessels. 2 She now gave effect to the recommen- 
dation of Congress by passing another act in the 
very terms of that recommendation. 3 

Upon the subject of British debts, to which 
the recent ratification of the definitive treaty of 
peace by Congress gave a very solemn impor- 
tance, the proceedings of the legislature were 
not characterized by an equal spirit of loyalty to 
the federal authority. The treaty having ex- 

1 Journals of Congress, vol. iv. 2 Hen. Stat. vol. xi. p. 313. 
p. 393 3 Mem, pp. 388, 389. 



DEBTS DUE TO BRITISH SUBJECTS. 567 

pressly stipulated that there should be " no lawful 
impediment on either side to the recovery of 
debts heretofore contracted," and Virginia having, 
during the war, passed laws, which were still in 
force, prohibiting the recovery of debts due to 
British subjects, the repeal of those laws seemed 
now the necessary consequence of the paramount 
obligation of a treaty concluded by the United 
States in virtue of an explicit power granted by 
the articles of confederation to Congress. 

The previous disregard of the provisional arti- 
cles of peace by the British authorities, in the 
removal of negroes contrary to the positive stip- 
ulation of one of those articles, gave a color for 
delays on the part of the State, which, concurring 
with the general pecuniary embarrassments of 
the people, too easily influenced the deliberations 
of the Assembly. A special committee was ap- 
pointed to inquire into and report upon an infrac- 
tion of the seventh article of the treaty by the 
agents of Great Britain, "so far as the same re- 
spects the detention of slaves and other property 
belonging to the citizens of this Commonwealth." 
The report of the committee having verified the 
infraction, a resolution was brought forward, in- 
structing the delegates of the State in Congress 
to lay the same before that body, and to ask its 
interposition to remonstrate to and demand rep- 
aration from the . British government, with an 
additional instruction in these words: — 

"And that the said delegates be instructed to 



568 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

inform Congress that the General Assembly have 
no inclination to interfere with the power of mak- 
ing treaties with foreign nations, which the confed- 
eration hath wisely vested in Congress ; but it 
is conceived that a just regard for the national 
honor, and the interest of the citizens of this 
Commonwealth, obliges the Assembly to withhold 
their cooperation in the complete fulfilment of 
the said treaty, until the success of the aforesaid 
remonstrance is known, or Congress shall signify 
their sentiments touching the premises." 

To many members of the legislature, of whom 
Mr. Madison was one, this resolution, while dis- 
claiming any interference with the treaty-making 
power of Congress, appeared plainly to assume 
the decision of a question respecting the obliga- 
tion and fulfilment of treaty stipulations, which 
necessarily and exclusively belonged to the prov- 
ince of the department constitutionally charged 
with the treaty-making power. An amendment 
of the resolution was, therefore, offered by Mr. 
Madison, which, in lieu of the instruction recited 
above, proposed the following : — 

"In case of refusal or unreasonable delay of 
due reparation, the said delegates be instructed to 
urge that the sanction of Congress be given to the 
just policy of retaining so much of the debts due 
from the citizens of this Commonwealth to British 
subjects as will fully repair the losses sustained 
by the infraction of the treaty aforesaid." J 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, May session, 1 784, pp. 74, 75. 



MR. MADISON'S PROPOSITION. 569 

The amendment failed, there appearing thirty- 
three votes for it, and fifty against it; and the 
original resolution was then agreed to by the 
House. This was the inauguration of a policy 
which led to lone and serious international em- 
broilments, and gave rise to mutual and bitter 
recriminations of breaches of public faith. The 
question will meet us often again in the course 
of this narrative. We will only remark, for the 
present, that the accustomed division took place 
upon it between the two ancient leaders of the 
public councils of Virginia at that time. Mr. 
Richard Henry Lee voted in favor of an imme- 
diate compliance with the stipulations of the 
treaty of peace, by the repeal of all laws in Vir- 
ginia inconsistent with it ; 1 while Mr. Henry was 
the champion of the policy that prevailed in the 
resolution adopted. 2 

1 Sec Journal of House of Del- for the progressive recovery of 
egates, May session, 1784, p. 41. British debts, to be paid in instal- 

2 That the reader may have a ments, as under all the circum- 
full view of the proceedings of the stances of the case an equitable 
legislature, and of the opinions of and proper arrangement ; which 
Mr. Madison on a subject of so proposition was introduced with 
much interest to the national char- the following preamble : — 

acter and the peaceful relations of " Whereas, by the 4th article 
the country, we here give an out- of the definitive treaty of peace, 
line of a comprehensive proposi- ratified and proclaimed by the 
tion which was submitted by him United States in Congress assem- 
in committee of the whole, both as bled on the 14th day of January 
to the recovery of debts due to last, ' it is agreed that creditors on 
British subjects, and the mode of either side shall meet with no law- 
indemnity to be pursued for inju- ful impediment to the recovery of 
ries to American citizens from in- the full value, in sterling money, 
fraction of the treaty. With regard of all bond fide debts heretofore 
to the first, he proposed a provision contracted ' ; and whereas it is the 

48* 



570 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



The legislature of Virginia, at this its first ses- 
sion since the grand closing scene of the Revo- 
lution in the resignation of the commander-in- 
chief, was not unmindful of the tribute of grati- 

iluty and determination of this side, they are called upon by the 
Commonwealth, with a becoming United States in Congress assem- 
reverence for the faith of treaties, bled, to whom, by the federal con- 
truly and honestly to give to the stitution, the powers of war and 
said article all the effect which cir- peace are exclusively delegated, to 
cumstances not within its control carry into effect the stipulations in 
will now possibly admit ; and in- favor of British subjects, an equal 

observance of the stipulations in 
their own favor should, on the 
other side, be duly secured to them 
under the authority of the confed- 
eracy, — 

" Resolved, That it is the opin- 
ion of this committee that the del- 
cially under the diminution of their egates representing this State in 
property resulting from the devas- Congress ought to be instructed to 
tations of the late war, and it is urge in Congress peremptory meas- 
therefore conceived that the inter- ures for obtaining from Great Brit- 
est of the British creditors them- ain satisfaction for the infringement 
selves will be favored by fixing of the article aforesaid ; and in 
certain reasonable periods at which case of refusal or unreasonable 
divided payments shall be made." delay of such satisfaction, to urge 
Then follows a resolution au- that the sanction of Congress be 
thorizing a progressive recovery given to the just policy of retain- 
of the debts to British subjects, in ing so much of the debts due from 



asinuch as the debts due from the 
good people of this Commonwealth 
to the subjects of Great Britain 
were contracted under the prospect 
of gradual payments, and are justly 
computed to exceed the possibility 
of full payment at once, more espe- 



annual instalments to be deter- 
mined by the legislature. 

With regard to the mode of in- 
demnity for injuries suffered by 



citizens of this Commonwealth to 
British subjects as will fully repair 
the losses sustained from such in- 
fringement ; and that, to enable the 



American citizens, after reciting said delegates to proceed herein 
the stipulations of the treaty which with the greater precision and ef- 



had been violated by the function- 
aries and agents of the British 
government, the proposition pro- 
ceeds : — 

" And whereas the good people 
of this Commonwealth have a clear 
right to expect that whilst, on one 



feet, the executive ought to be 
requested to take immediate meas- 
ures for obtaining and transmitting 
to them all just claims of the citi- 
zens of this Commonwealth under 
the 7th article as aforesaid." 



HONORS TO WASHINGTON. 571 

tilde and affection due to her illustrious son. At 
an early day of the session, a committee Mas 
appointed, of which Mr. Madison was a member, 
to draw up an address to Washington, conveying 
to him the thanks of the legislature " for his un- 
remitted zeal and services in the cause of lib- 
erty, and congratulating him on his return to 
his native State and the exalted pleasures of 
domestic life." The committee was instructed 
also to consider and report "what further meas- 
ures- may be necessary for perpetuating the grat- 
itude and veneration of his country." 

An address was agreed on by the two Houses, to 
be presented by a joint committee of both bodies. 
In this address the united representatives of the 
Commonwealth, among other grateful and patri- 
otic sentiments, declare : " We shall ever remem- 
ber, sir, with affection and gratitude, the patriotic 
exchange you made of the felicities of private 
life for the severe task of conducting the armies 
of your country through a conflict with one of 
the most powerful nations of the earth. We 
shall ever remember with admiration the wisdom 
which marked your councils on this arduous oc- 
casion ; the firmness and dignity which no trials 
of adverse fortune could shake ; the moderation 
and equanimity which no scenes of triumph could 
disturb ; nor shall we ever forget the exemplary 
respect which, in every instance, you have shown 
to the rights of the civil authority, or the ex- 
alted virtue which on many occasions led you to 



572 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

commit to danger your fame itself, rather than 
hazard for a moment the true interest of your 
country." 

With regard to other measures proper to per- 
petuate the gratitude of the country, it was 
resolved to cause to be erected a statue of Wash- 
ington, of the finest marble and best workman- 
ship, with the following inscription upon its pe- 
destal, which is known to have been the com- 
position of Mr. Madison : — 

" The General Assembly of Virginia have caused 
this statue to be erected as a monument of affec- 
tion and gratitude to George Washington, who, 
uniting to the endowments of the hero the vir- 
tues of the patriot, and exerting both in estab- 
lishing the liberties of his country, has rendered 
his name dear to his fellow-citizens, and given to 
the world an immortal example of true glory": — 

Words of sympathetic and virtuous eloquence, 
worthy to go down, with the spotless marble and 
the shining fame of its immortal subject, to the 
latest generations of mankind. 1 

1 It was proposed by Houdon, volume of his Writings, p. 442.) 

the artist, on his return to France The Latin inscription which was 

from America, to change this no- offered as a substitute was sin^u- 

ble inscription, which he was un- larly jejune and pompous, if we 

able to appreciate, upon the idle may judge from the translation 

plea that it was too long for the given by Mr. Jefferson ; and was 

space it was to occupy ; and the almost ludicrous by the bathos of 

proposition was seriously enter- its termination. The translation 

tained by Mr. Jefferson, then is as follows : " Behold, reader, the 

American minister at Paris. (See form of George Washington. For 

his letter of the 8th of February, his worth, ask history ; that will 

1786, to Mr. Madison, in the first tell it, when this stone shall have 



APPEAL ON BEHALF OF PAINE. 573 

It was a striking manifestation of the noble- 
ness of Washington's character, that, while him- 
self the object of these high honors bestowed by 
the legislature of his native State, he sought to 
interest their feelings on behalf of one whose mis- 
fortunes, and the merit of whose early services 
in the cause of American independence, caused 
his moral obliquities to be overlooked for the 
time, but who, by his subsequent conduct, and in 
nothing more than his revilings of his benefactor, 
showed how unworthy he was of the benevolence 
he inspired. On the 12th of June, 1784, Gen- 
eral Washington wrote to Mr. Madison : — 

a Can nothing be clone in our Assembly for 
poor Paine ? Must the merit and services of 
' Common Sense ' continue to glide down the 
stream of time unrewarded by this country ? 
His writings certainly have had a powerful effect 
upon the public mind. Ought they not, then, to 
meet an adequate return? He is poor, he is 
chagrined, and almost, if not altogether, in despair 
of relief. His views are moderate ; a decent in- 
dependency is, I believe, all he aims at. Ought he 

yielded to the decays of time, his answer to Mr. Jefferson, is ed- 
His country erects this monument; ifying and characteristic. "I am 
Houdon makes it." It is difficult sensible," he says, " of the inferi- 
to conceive how Mr. Jefferson ority in every respect of the orig- 
could have obtained the assent of inal inscription to the proposed 
his mind and taste to entertain or substitute ; but I am apprehensive 
submit the proposition of such a that no change can now be effect- 
change. The quiet and uncon- ed." Manuscript letter to Mr. 
tending manner in which Mr. Mad- Jefferson of the 12th of May, 
ison disposes of the suggestion, in 178G. 



574 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

to be disappointed of this ? If 3^011 think other- 
wise, I am sure you will not only move the 
matter, but give it your support. For me, it 
only remains to feel for his situation, and to as- 
sure you of the sincere esteem and regard with 
which I have the honor to be, dear sir, yours, 

"George Washington." 

Mr. Madison entered warmly into the views 
of his illustrious correspondent, and promptly in- 
troduced a bill for granting a tract of land to 
Paine, the kind of provision he desired. The 
proposition, though sustained by powerful advo- 
cates, did not receive the sanction of the legis- 
lature. Mr. Madison appears to have been much 
chagrined at its failure ; and in writing to Gen- 
eral Washington, on the 2d of July, 1784, he 
says : " Should it finally appear that the merits 
of the man whose writings have so much con- 
tributed to infuse and foster the spirit of inde- 
pendence in the people of America are unable 
to inspire them with a just beneficence, the 
world, it is to be feared, will give us as little 
credit for our policy as for our gratitude in this 
particular." 

The decision of the legislature, however, stands 
justified in the eyes of posterity by the exhibition 
which the unhappy subject of this exalted pat- 
ronage afterwards made of his own unworthiness, 1 

1 In an}- period of the republic, man, in his published letter of 
the language which this infatuated 1796, dared to apply to Washing* 



REJECTED BY THE LEGISLATURE. 575 

and may be classed with other instances to prove 
that the judgments of collective bodies of men 
are often truer tests of individual merit than the 
indulgent estimates of superior minds led away 
by their own benevolent impulses. With this 
generous but fruitless endeavour to give effect 
to a magnanimous intercession closed the pres- 
ent session of the General Assembly of Virginia; 
and Mr. Madison was allowed, though for a brief 
season, a respite from his legislative labors. 

ton, could not but shock every ever gone so far as to say of Wash- 
honest mind ; but in the present ington, " that, treacherous in pri- 
age, when the calm lights of his- vate and hypocritical in public 
tory have served only to heighten life, the world would be puzzled 
the purity and splendor of his to decide whether he was an apos- 
fame, it would not be believed, but tate or an impostor, — whether he 
for the existence of the dark rec- had abandoned good principles, or 
ord, that a sacrilegious license had ever had any." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Occupations of Mr. Madison during Recess of the Legislature — 
Able Letter to Mr. Jefferson on Right to Navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi — Sets out on a Tour to the North — Meets with the Mar- 
quis Lafayette — Accompanies him to an Indian Treaty in the 
"Western Part of New York — Incidents at the Treaty — Impres- 
sions of Lafayette's Character — Reassembling of the Legislature — 
Mr. Madison made Chairman of Committee of Courts of Justice — 
Reports Plan for establishing Courts of Assize — Advocates suc- 
cessfully the Enactment of a Law by Virginia to repress and 
punish Enterprises of her Citizens against Nations with which the 
United States are at Peace — This Act the first Example of Amer- 
ican Legislation to punish those Offences against the Law of Na- 
tions now known under the Name of Filibustering — Renewed 
Effort for the Execution of the Treaty of Peace respecting British 
Debts — Proposition made by Mr. Madison at the late Session 
again brought forward — Improved Sentiments of the Legislature 
with Regard to it — Finally lost by a singular Accident — General 
Assessment for Support of Teachers of the Christian Religion again 
proposed — Warmly sustained by Mr. Henry and other distin- 
guished Members — Mr. Madison firmly, and almost singly in De- 
bate, opposes it — Outline of his powerful Argument, as collected 
from a Fragment among his Papers — Progress of the Measure in 
the House — Bill for incorporating the Episcopal Church — Ques- 
tion of Assessment, by the persevering Opposition of Mr. Madi- 
son and his Auxiliaries, postponed to the next Session of the 
Legislature, and in the mean Time referred to the People for an 
Expression of their Sense upon it. 



PATRIOTIC PURSUITS OF MR. MADISON. 577 

Mn. Madison, on his release from his legisla- 
tive duties at Richmond, did not give himself up 
to vacancy and inaction. A mind so long con- 
versant with the great questions and mighty in- 
terests affecting the future destinies of the nation 
naturally recurred to them in a retirement which 
afforded leisure for contemplating them in all 
their various relations, and in the new and im- 
portant directions they might take on the return 
of peace. 

Among the questions on which the future 
growth and prosperity of the American empire 
essentially depended, and which the war had left 
undecided, was that of the free navigation to the 
ocean of the noble river placed by nature on 
our Western borders, as the outlet of their teem- 
ing productions. The obstinacy and infatuation 
of the power which possessed its mouth still 
sought to withhold this boon of Providence from 
the equal participation of the citizens of the 
United States. We have seen the early and sa- 
gacious interest shown by Mr. Madison in this 
important subject. His • solicitude respecting it 
increased as the time approached when it must 
receive a definitive solution. 

An efficacious influence, he thought, was to be 
exerted by the other powers of Europe, and 
especially by France, on the narrow and bigoted 
councils of Spain, with regard to a principle of 
public law and international justice which more 
or less concerned them all. His friend Mr. Jef- 

VOL. I. 49 



578 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ferson was now one of the ministers of the United 
States at Paris, and in a position to enlist the 
moral influence, if not the formal intervention, 
of the governments of Europe on the side of 
the American claim. A letter which Mr. Mad- 
ison addressed to him on this subject from his 
residence in Orange county, on the 20th of Au- 
gust, 1784, though proceeding from a private 
and unofficial source, deserves, for the ability of 
its reasoning, and the variety and extent of its 
knowledge and research, to be ranked among 
the most remarkable diplomatic papers on record. 
We insert a single extract from it, as exhibiting 
not only his habitual largeness of views, but a 
minute and familiar acquaintance, rarely found 
among the public men of the present day, with 
the policy and relations, natural and conventional, 
of the various powers of the European world. 

"Must not," he says, "the general interest of 
Europe, in all cases, influence the determination 
of any particular nation in Europe? and does 
not that interest, in the present case, clearly lie 
on our side ? All the principal powers have, in 
a general view, more to gain than to lose by 
denying the right of those who hold the mouths 
of rivers to intercept a communication with those 
above. France, Great Britain, and Sweden have 
no opportunity of exerting such a right, and 
must wish a free passage for their merchandise 
in every country. Spain herself has no such op- 
portunity, and has, besides, three of her principal 



LETTER ON FREEDOM OF MISSISSIPPI. 579 

rivers — one of them the seat of her metropolis 
■ — running through Portugal. Russia can have 
nothing to lose by denying this pretension, and 
is bound to do so in favor of her great rivers, 
the Dnieper, the Dniester, and the Don, which 
mouth in the Black Sea, and of the passage 
through the Dardanelles, which she extorted from 
the Turks. The emperor, in common with the 
inland States of Germany, and, moreover, by his 
possessions on the Maese and the Scheldt, has a 
similar interest. The possessions of the king of 
Prussia on the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Oder 
are pledges for his orthodoxy. 

"The United Provinces hold, it is true, the 
mouths of the Maese, the Rhine, and the Scheldt ; 
but a general freedom of trade is so much their 
policy, and they now cany on so much of it by 
the channel of rivers flowing through different 
dominions, that their weight can hardly be thrown 
into the wrong scale. The only powers that can 
have an interest in opposing the American doc- 
trine are the Ottoman, which has already given 
up the point to Russia ; Denmark, which is suf- 
fered to retain the entrance of the Baltic ; Por- 
tugal, whose principal rivers head in Spain ; 
Venice, which holds the mouth of the Po ; and 
Dantzic, which commands that of the Vistula, 
if it is yet to be considered as a sovereign city. 
The prevailing disposition of Europe on this point 
once frustrated an attempt of Denmark to ex- 
act a toll at the mouth of the Elbe, by means 



580 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of a fort on the Holstein side which commands 
it." 

After two months of close application to his 
books in the seclusion of the country, Mr. Mad- 
ison determined to devote the remainder of the 
legislative vacation to acquiring, by personal ob- 
servation, a more extended knowledge of the 
different States of the confederacy. He had not 
yet been in the Eastern States, and he set out 
from home with the intention of making a tour 
of that portion of the Union. In Baltimore he 
met with the Marquis Lafayette, who, after an 
absence of two years from America, had returned 
to visit his friends and companions in arms and 
council, and to rejoice with them in the consum- 
mation of national independence, and in the 
opening prospects of the great empire he had as- 
sisted to found. The Marquis had already spent 
some time with his venerated chief at Mount 
Vernon, and was now on his way to visit his 
friends in the Middle and Eastern States, in- 
tending to rejoin General Washington in the 
capital of Virginia after the reassembling of the 
legislature. 

Mr. Madison felt the highest satisfaction in 
meeting with this generous champion of Ameri- 
can freedom, whom he had known and appre- 
ciated during the trying scenes of the war, and 
at once formed the plan of bearing him company 
in the tour which they equally had in view. 
Lafayette had been invited to attend a treaty to 



ACCOMPANIES LAFAYETTE IN A TOUR. 581 

be held with the Indians at Fort Schuyler in 
the following month. The traditional influence 
of his nation, as well as his own personal popu- 
larity with these rude children of the forest, 
would, it was thought, enable him to serve the 
interests of the United States essentially in the 
approaching conference. Mr. Madison, on his ar- 
rival at New York, finding that he should not 
have time to accomplish his Eastern tour satis- 
factorily, decided to defer it to a future and 
more favorable period, and to proceed directly 
with Lafayette to Fort Schuyler. 

His change of plan, and the attendant circum- 
stances, he thus describes in a letter of the 15th 
of September, 1784, to Mr. Jefferson: — 

" The information I have here received con- 
vinces me that I cannot accomplish the whole 
route I had planned within the time to which I 
am limited, nor go from this to Boston in the 
mode which I had reckoned upon. I shall there- 
fore decline this part of my plan, at least for 
the present, and content myself with a trip to 
Fort Schuyler, in which I shall gratify my curi- 
osity in several respects, and have the pleasure 
of the Marquis's company. We shall set off this 
afternoon in a barge up the North River. The 
Marquis has received in this city a continuation 
of those marks of cordial esteem and affection 
which were hinted in my last. The gazettes 
herewith enclosed will give you samples of them. 
Besides the personal homage he receives, his 

49* 



582 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

presence has furnished occasion for fresh manifes- 
tations of those sentiments towards France which 
have been so well merited by her, but which 
her enemies pretended would soon give way to 
returning affection for Great Britain." 

The commissioners of the United States, ap- 
pointed to hold the treaty with the Indians, were 
Mr. Oliver Wolcott, Mr. Arthur Lee, and Mr. Rich- 
ard Butler. The two travellers arrived in advance 
of the commissioners at Fort Schuyler, and availed 
themselves of the leisure thus gained to make a 
visit to the nation of Oneiclas, in their town 
twenty miles beyond the fort. The appearance 
of Lafayette produced the same outburst of en- 
thusiasm among the red men of America — 
to whom he was known under the familiar 
name of Kayewla — that it had given rise to 
among his brethren of European origin. At the 
request of the commissioners, — though not with- 
out some demurring from the anti-Gallican jeal- 
ousies of Dr. Lee, — he made a public address 
to the different nations, when they were assem- 
bled in council. 

The words of Kayewla were listened to with 
profound sympathy and respect ; and several of 
the chiefs, in responding to him, as they did with 
unbounded effusions of confidence and affection, 
promised to follow his counsels, and live in peace 
and brotherhood with the United States. Lafay- 
ette left this primeval congress with feelings grat- 
ified at the simple and untutored homage he had 



INTERCOURSE WITH LAFAYETTE. 583 

received, as well as at the new opportunity which 
had been afforded him of evincing his zeal for 
the interests of America. 1 Mr. Madison parted 
with him at Albany, on their return, the Mar- 
quis proceeding to Boston to visit his friends in 
New England, while Mr. Madison pursued his 
way through New York and Philadelphia to 
attend the meeting of the legislature of Virginia, 
which was to take place in a few days at Rich- 
mond. 

The free and unreserved intercourse with Gen- 
eral Lafayette, on this excursion, presented an 
occasion for impressing upon his mind the vital 
importance of the navigation of the Mississippi 
to the interests of the United States, and the 
necessity of an earnest mediation of France with 
Spain on the subject, which one so thoughtful of 
the public welfare as Mr. Madison was not likely 
to leave unimproved. In writing to Mr. Jeffer- 
son, immediately after he fell in with Lafayette 
at Baltimore, he says : — 

"The relation in which the Marquis stands to 
France and America has induced me to enter 
into a free conversation with him on the subject 
of the Mississippi. I have endeavoured emphati- 
cally to impress on him that the ideas of Amer- 
ica and of Spain irreconcilably clash ; that, unless 
the mediation of France be effectually exerted, 

1 See an interesting account of 98-104, and in a letter of Mr. Mad- 
the occurrences at this treaty in ison to Mr. Jefferson of the 1 7th 
Menioires de Lafayette, vol. n. pp. of October, 1 784. 



584 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

an actual rupture is near at hand ; that, in such 
an event, the connection between France and 
Spain will give the enemies of the former in 
America the fairest opportunity of involving her 
in our resentments against the latter, and of in- 
troducing Great Britain as a party with us against 
both ; that America cannot possibly be diverted 
from her object, and therefore France is bound 
to set every engine at work to divert Spain from 
hers ; and that France has, besides, a great 
interest in a trade with the Western country 
through the Mississippi." 

These representations produced their natural 
and proper effect upon Lafayette. He recognized 
their justice and felt their force, and said he 
would write by the next packet to the Count de 
Vergennes on the subject. He was not unmind- 
ful of his word ; and amid all the bustle and ex- 
citement of the enthusiastic reception he met 
with in New York, as in the other cities through 
which he passed, he found time to write a very 
pregnant, though brief letter to the French min- 
ister of foreign affairs on this critical and impor- 
tant question. 1 

The reader will be curious to know what im- 
pressions Mr. Madison formed, from a close and 
daily personal intercourse of a month's duration, 
with regard to the character of this remarkable 
man, who played so prominent a part in the 
affairs of Europe and America, and concerning 

1 See the letter in Meinoires de Lafayette, vol. n. pp. 107, 108. 



IMPRESSIONS OF HIS CHARACTER. 585 

whom so great a diversity of opinion has pre- 
vailed. In a confidential letter of the 17th of 
October, 1784, to Mr. Jefferson, he thus speaks 
of him : — 

"The time I have lately passed with the Mar- 
quis has given me a pretty thorough insight into 
his character. With great natural frankness of 
temper he unites much address, and very con- 
siderable talents. In his politics, he says his 
three hobby-horses are the alliance between 
France and the United States, the union of the 
latter, and the manumission of the slaves. The 
two former are the dearer to him, as they are 
connected with his personal glory." 

In another letter to Mr. Jefferson, written some 
months later, (the 20th of August, 1785,) we 
meet with this further sketch : — 

"Subsequent to the date of mine in which I 
gave my idea of Lafayette, I had other opportu- 
nities of penetrating his character. Though his 
foibles did not disappear, all the favorable traits 
presented themselves in a stronger light, on closer 
inspection. He certainly possesses talents which 
might figure in any line. If he is ambitious, it 
is rather of the praise which virtue dedicates to 
merit than of the homage which fear renders to 
power. His disposition is naturally warm and 
affectionate, and his attachment to the United 
States unquestionable. Unless I am grossly de- 
ceived, you will find his zeal sincere and useful, 
whenever it can be employed on behalf of the 



5SG 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 



United States without opposition to the essential 
interests of France." 1 



1 The foibles of Lafayette here 
referred to were, doubtless, those 
which sprang from what Mr. Jef- 
ferson denominated in him " a ca- 
nine appetite for popularity and 
fame," (see Jefferson's Writings, 
vol. II. p. 89,) and what his distin- 
guished countryman, Guizot, has 
more n-ecntly called " un besoin 
permanent et indistinct de faveur 
populaire," but which Mr. Madison 
more gently describes as an am- 
bition of praise. The love of 
popularity was, unquestionably, a 
prominent trait in the character 
of Lafayette, and led him some- 
times into weakness and error. 
He himself, on a memorable occa- 
sion, spoke of his popularity as 
dearer to him than life ; but de- 
clared, at the same time, he would 
sacrifice both rather than fail in a 
duty and connive at a crime, and 
that he was persuaded no end could 
ever justify the employment of 
means which public or private mo- 
rality disowned. The passage is so 
honorable to Lafayette, that it de- 
serves to be cited in his own felicit- 
ous language. It Avas part of a 
general order issued by him as 
commandant en chef of the na- 
tional guards in 1830, when the 
lives of the ex-ministers at the 
Luxembourg were threatened by 
an excited populace, and was in 
these words : — 

" C'est ainsi que toujours ils le 
trouveront cc qu'il fut a dix-neuf 
ans, ce qu'il a etc en 1789 et 1830, 



ce qu'il sera pendant le peu d'an- 
nees qui lui restent a vivre, — 
l'homme de la liberte et de l'ordre 
public, aimant sa popularite beau- 
coup plus que la vie, mais decide 
a sacrifier l'une et l'autre plutot 
que de manquer a un devoir et 
de souffrir un crime, et persuade 
qu'aucun but ne justifie les moyens 
que la morale publique ou privee 
de'savoue." Ordre du jour du 19 
Decembre, 1830. 

That love of the Union, in his 
system of American politics, which 
he spoke of in 1 78-i to Mr. Madi- 
son as one of the three cardinal 
principles of his cherished political 
creed, grew stronger and stronger 
in him as he advanced in years. 
It is so touchingly and eloquently 
expressed in a letter he addressed 
to the writer of these pages in the 
autumn of 1832, when the Union 
seemed to be threatened by the 
new theory of nullification, that we 
cannot forbear to give a brief ex- 
tract from it to the reader: — 

" For God's sake, my dear sir, 
tell our friends and fellow-citizens 
of every party, particularly those 
in public stations, that, in this crit- 
ical situation of European politics, 
every speech or measure which 
threatens collision, separation, dis- 
orders, further than what is the 
appendage of republican debate in 
a free country, is eagerly made an 
argument against the diffusion of 
popular principles throughout this 
European part of the world ; and 



REASSEMBLING OF THE LEGISLATURE. 587 

Mr. Madison did not arrive in Richmond until 

a fortnight after the period lixed lor Hie meet- 
ing of the legislature, but in time for the com- 
mencement of business, as a quorum of the House 
was formed only the day before lie took his seat. 
He was again put upon all the leading commit- 
tees, and was now made chairman of the commit- 
tee for courts of justice. As this is a position 
almost invariably assigned to a professional law- 
yer of reputation and experience, the appoint- 
ment was a very marked compliment to the 
knowledge and attainments of Mr. Madison in a 
science he never professed, and to which he had 
but lately turned his attention as a necessary 
accomplishment of the legislator and statesman. 

He took an active and leading part during 
the session in several questions which demanded 
an acquaintance with both positive and theoret- 
ical jurisprudence. In the general revision of 
the laws, for which he had taken the prelimi- 
nary step at the last session of the legislature, 
he was not able to make any systematic ad- 
vance, as the report of the revisors was not 
printed till near the close of the present session. 
Increased facilities, however, in the administra- 
tion of justice being urgently required, in conse- 
quence of the immense accumulation of business 
and consequent delays in the general court, — 

supposing a separation of the Un- fought and bled in the revolution- 
ion, which God forbid, was in fu- ary war has breathed his ultimate 
turity to take place, do wait at least sigh." Manuscript letter of the 
until the last of those who have 25th of September, 1832. 



588 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

the great fountain of justice for the whole State, 
— a resolution was adopted, declaring that, "for 
the more convenient administration of justice 
throughout the Commonwealth, circuit courts 
ought to be established." A bill was ordered to be 
brought in, pursuant to this resolution; and Mr. 
Madison was placed at the head of a select com- 
mittee, consisting of the ablest professional mem- 
bers of the House, to prepare and bring it in. 1 

The plan reported proposed to lay off the 
State into a certain number of convenient dis- 
tricts or circuits, in each of which a court of 
assize was to be held twice a year, at which all 
issues and inquiries of damages, in suits depend- 
ing before the general court, were to be tried 
by juries duly empannelled in those courts. The 
courts of assize were to be severally held by 
two judges of the court of appeals, which tribu- 
nal consisted at that time of the judges of all 
the higher courts united into one for the pur- 
pose of deciding appeals, and was thus composed 
of the three judges of the high court of chan- 
cery, the three of the court of admiralty, and the 
five of the general court. The judges were to 
be assigned, by an order of the court of appeals 
made from time to time, among the different cir- 
cuits, for the purpose of holding the assize courts, 
whose proceedings, with the verdicts found, were 
to be certified into the general court, where final 
judgment was to be entered. 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 43. 



BILL ESTABLISHING COURTS OF ASSIZE. 589 

The plan was borrowed, with slight modifica- 
tions, from that of the Nisi Prius courts in Eng- 
land, and promised to relieve the general court 
from the delays and inconveniences incident to 
the trial of all issues at its own bar, and thereby 
to render the administration of justice through- 
out the Commonwealth more expeditious and 
commodious, while insuring greater uniformity 
and the highest attainable grade of judicial wis- 
dom in the decisions of the different courts. 
There was a numerous class of persons to whom 
no measure, contemplating the removal of delays 
in the administration of justice at that time, was 
likely to be acceptable. The bill reported by 
the committee was, therefore, not received with 
any special warmth of approbation, though it 
finally passed both Houses without any overt re- 
sistance. Mr. Madison, in a letter of the 9th of 
January, 1785, gives the following account of its 
reception and progress : — 

"This act was carried through the House of 
Delegates against much secret repugnance, but 
without any direct and open opposition. It luck- 
ily happened that the latent opposition wanted 
both a mouth and a head. Mr. Henry had been 
previously elected governor, and was gone for 
his family. From his conversation since, I sur- 
mise that his presence might have been fatal. 
The act is formed precisely on the English pat- 
tern, and is nearly a transcript from the bill 
originally penned in 1776 by Mr. Pendleton, ex- 

VOL. I. 50 



590 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

cept that writs sent blank from the clerk of the 
general court are to issue in the district, but be 
returned to the general court. In the Senate, it 
became a consideration whether the assize courts 
ought not to be turned into so many courts of 
independent and complete jurisdiction, and ad- 
mitting an appeal only to the court of appeals. 
If the fear of endangering the bill had not 
checked the experiment, such a proposition would 
probably have been sent down to the House of 
Delegates, where it would have been better rel- 
ished by many than the assize plan." 

There was another measure, of a somewhat 
novel, but highly important character, connected 
with the enforcement of justice in the exterior 
relations of the State, in which Mr. Madison took 
a very earnest and influential part. The pend- 
ing discussions with Spain, respecting the naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi, disposed many of the set- 
tlers in the western parts of Virginia, which then 
included Kentucky, to commit trespasses and 
acts of violence within the limits of the adjacent 
Spanish possessions. These proceedings were cal- 
culated not only to compromise the peace and 
tranquillity of the country, but to retard and ren- 
der more doubtful the ultimate adjustment of the 
great national question at issue. 

The legislature, immediately after its assem- 
bling, took a very wise and statesmanlike course 
to avert the threatened danger. On the third 
day of the session, the House of Delegates passed 



ACT PUNISHING UNLAWFUL ENTERPRISES. 501 

a resolution to the following effect : " That, for 
preserving the tranquillity of our western inhab- 
itants, speedy and exemplary punishment oughl 
to be inflicted on every person doing injury to 
the subjects of Spain or the Indians in that quar- 
ter, and that proper laws for that purpose ought 
to be enacted." This resolution they accompa- 
nied with another, declaring that "it is essential 
to the prosperity and happiness of the western 
inhabitants of this Commonwealth that they should 
enjoy the right of navigating the river Missis- 
sippi to the sea," and instructing the delegates' 
of the State in Congress " to move that honor- 
able body to give directions (unless the same 
have been already given) to the American min- 
isters in Europe to forward negotiations to obtain 
that end without loss of time." 1 

A committee was appointed, consisting of Mr. 
Matthews, — who had been chairman of the com- 
mittee of the whole, in which these resolutions 
were agreed upon, — of Mr. Madison, Mr. Henry, 
Mr. Stuart, Mr. Corbin, Mr. Barbour, and Mr. 
Johnson, to prepare and bring in a bill in pursu- 
ance of the first-mentioned resolution. The bill, 
in the shape which it finally assumed, — after 
setting forth, in a well-conceived preamble, that 
" it is the desire of the good people of this Com- 
monwealth, in all cases, to manifest their rever- 
ence for the law of nations, to cultivate peace 
and amity, as far as may depend on them, be- 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1 784, p. 9. 



592 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

twcen the United States and foreign powers, and 
to support the dignity and energy of the fed- 
eral constitution/' — directs that if a citizen or 
an inhabitant of Virginia shall commit, within 
the jurisdiction of a foreign power at peace with 
the United States, any crime for which, by the 
law of nations or by treaty stipulations, he ought, 
in the judgment of Congress, to be surrendered 
to the offended power, such person, upon the 
demand of the said power, duly sanctioned and 
notified by Congress, shall be delivered to the 
custody of such agent as Congress may approve, 
in order to be tried and punished where the 
alleged offence was committed. 

The bill also contained provisions for punish- 
ing, in the courts of the State, offences commit- 
ted by citizens of Virginia against the laws and 
within the jurisdiction of a foreign power, "in like 
manner as if they had been committed within 
the body of some county of the Commonwealth " ; 
and these provisions were extended to offences 
committed in the territory of any Indian tribe, 
equally with such as should be perpetrated 
within the limits of a Christian or civilized nation. 
The measure — suggested and proposed by Mr. 
Madison — was vehemently opposed in every stage 
of its progress. It was assailed, particularly, as 
violating the eighth article of the Virginia Bill of 
Rights, which guarantees to the accused, in crim- 
inal prosecutions, a trial by an impartial jury of 
the vicinage, and declares that no man shall be 



ACT PUNISHING UNLAWFUL ENTERPRISES. 593 

deprived of his liberty but by the law of the 
land or the judgment of his peers. At one time, 
amendments were made to it in committee of 
the whole which destroyed its principle ; but, 
upon the renewal of the struggle in the House, 
those amendments were defeated, and the bill 
was finally carried by a majority of a single 
vote. 1 

Mr. Henry, while he remained in the House, 
warmly seconded Mr. Madison in the advocacy 
of this noble measure ; but, having been elected 
governor, he left the House before the decisive 
battle was fought upon it. There is not to be 
found upon the statute-book of any civilized 
State a more honorable recognition of the prin- 
ciples of international justice and integrity, or a 
more emphatic denunciation and rebuke of those 
lawless enterprises which in modern times, under 
the name of filibustering^ have revived the license 
of a barbarous age, than this model act of the 
legislature of Virginia. We leave the further his- 
tory and defence of it to the eloquent pen of Mr. 

1 See Journal of House of Del- and which was itself, pi-obably, de- 

egates, pp. 41, 42, and Letter of rived from the name of the species 

Mr. Madison to Mr. Monroe of the of light vessel, fly-boat, used by 

27th of November, 1784. For the the buccaneers in their encounters 

act, see Hen. Stat. vol. xi. pp. 471, with the larger Spanish vessels. 

472. For an interesting account of the 

a This uncouth Americanism is, French adventurers, with whom 

doubtless, derived through the the life of buccaneering had its 

Spanish from the French word fli- origin, and of the maritime equip- 

buslier, by which the French and ments and mode of attack of the 

English buccaneers of the seven- buccaneers, see Abbe Raynal's 

teenth century were designated, History of the Indies, Book x. 

50* 



594 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Madison, who, in his letter of the 9th of Jan- 
uary, 1785, to Mr. Jefferson, thus speaks of it : — 

"This measure was suggested by the danger 
of our being speedily embroiled with the nations 
contiguous to the United States, — particularly the 
Spaniards, — by the licentious and predatory spirit 
of some of our western people. In several in- 
stances, gross outrages are said to have been 
already committed. The measure was warmly 
patronized by Mr. Henry and most of the foren- 
sic members, and no less warmly opposed by the 
speaker, (Mr. Tyler,) and some others. The op- 
ponents contended that such surrenders were 
unknown to the law of nations, and were inter- 
dicted by our Bill of Eights. Vattel, however, is 
express as to the case of robbers, murderers, and 
incendiaries. Grotius quotes various instances in 
which great offenders have been given up by 
their proper sovereigns to be punished by the 
offended sovereigns. Puffendorf only refers to 
Grotius. I have had no opportunity of consult- 
ing other authorities. 

"With regard to the Bill of Rights, it was al- 
leged to be no more, or rather less, violated by 
considering crimes committed against other laws 
as not falling under the notice of our own, and 
sendum; our citizens to be tried where the cause 
of trial arose, than to try them under our own 
laws without a jury of the vicinage, and without 
being confronted with their accusers or witnesses ; 
as must be the case, if they be tried at all for 



PROPOSITION RESPECTING BRITISH DEBTS. 595 

such offences under our own laws. And to say 
that such offenders should neither be given up 
for punishment, nor be punished within their own 
country, would amount to a license for every 
ao-oression, and would sacrifice the peace of the 
whole country to the impunity of the worst mem- 
bers of it. The necessity of a qualified interpre- 
tation of the Bill of Rights was also inferred 
from the law of the confederacy which requires 
the surrender of our citizens to the laws of other 
States, in cases of treason, felony, and other high 
misdemeanours. The act provides, however, for 
a domestic trial, in cases where a surrender may 
not be justified or insisted upon, and in cases of 
aggressions on the Indians." 

The triumph of this measure of peace and 
justice furnished encouragement for another effort 
to provide for the execution of the fourth article 
of the treaty of peace with England by the re- 
moval of all existing impediments to the recov- 
ery of British debts. The resolutions passed at 
the last session on the subject, by assuming to 
the legislature of a State the right of determin- 
ing in what contingencies a treaty solemnly en- 
tered into by the constitutional authority of the 
Union should or should not ■ be fulfilled, had 
shocked the public sense of propriety, and cre- 
ated no small uneasiness in the minds of many 
reflecting persons. Among the evidences of this 
sober sentiment in portions of the constituent 
body was a remarkable petition and remon- 



596 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

strance presented to the House of Delegates 
from the county of Amherst, in which the peti- 
tioners say " they were deeply affected by certain 
resolutions passed at the last Assembly, which, 
they conceive, have an obvious tendency to in- 
troduce anarchy and confusion in our public 
councils, and to subvert the basis of the confed- 
eration, arrogating to this State the power of 
peace and war, which of right belongs to Con- 
gress, and pray that the said resolutions be re- 
scinded." 1 

The opportunity for further reflection during 
the recess, and the exchange of ratifications of 
the treaty of peace in the interim, had also 
produced a sensible reaction in the representa- 
tive body. All these favorable omens conspired 
to revive the hopes of those who stood in the 
minority at the last session, vainly urging the 
elevated policy of America's setting the example 
of a stainless public faith to her adversary. The 
proposition submitted at that time by Mr. Mad- 
ison was now brought forward, with slight mod- 
ifications of detail, by his friend Mr. Jones, and 
was acceded to, with but little opposition, in the 
House. 

Resolutions were adopted, declaring that good 
faith required that the stipulations of the treaty 
of peace should be duly executed by the con- 
tracting parties, and that the impediments to 
the recovery of debts due to British subjects 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 15. 



PROGRESS OF THE PROPOSITION. 597 

from citizens of the Commonwealth ought to be 
removed ; but that, as the calamities and devas- 
tations of the war had greatly impaired the ability 
to make prompt payments, it would be conducive 
to the interest of both creditors and debtors that 
the balances due should be discharged in a 
course of divided annual payments. The progres- 
sive extinguishment of the debts in seven annual 
instalments;, with the suspension of interest during 
the interval between the commencement and ter- 
mination of hostilities, was agreed upon as the 
plan of adjustment most equitable and proper; 
and a committee, of which both Mr. Jones and 
Mr. Madison were members, was appointed to 
prepare a bill in conformity to it. 1 

The bill passed readily through the House of 
Delegates, but encountered difficulties and delays 
in the Senate. An important amendment was 
made to it in that body, which the House dis- 
agreed to. The two bodies adhering to their re- 
spective views, a conference finally took place 
between them, which terminated in a compro- 
mise. What ensued, as well as some additional 
particulars relating to the introduction and prog- 
ress of the measure, we shall learn from Mr. 
Madison's letter of the 9th of January, 1785, 
written, immediately after the adjournment of 
the legislature, to Mr. Jefferson. 

"The subject of the British debts," he says, 
"underwent a reconsideration, on the motion of 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 48. 



598 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Mr. Jones. Though no answer had been received 
from Congress to the resolutions passed at the 
last session, a material change had evidently 
taken place in the mind of the Assembly, pro- 
ceeding in part from a more dispassionate view 
of the question, — in part from the intervening 
exchange of the ratifications of the treaty. Mr. 
Henry was out of the way. His previous con- 
versation, I am told, favored a reconsideration. 
The speaker, (Mr. Tyler,) the other champion at 
the last session against the treaty, was, at least, 
half a proselyte." 

After giving an account of the resolutions 
adopted and of the bill brought in, with the pro- 
ceedings upon it in the Senate, and the subse- 
quent conference between the two Houses, the 
letter proceeds : — 

"The conference produced a proposition from 
the House of Delegates, to which the Senate as- 
sented ; but, before the assent was notified, an 
incident happened which has left the bill in a 
very critical situation. The delays attending this 
measure had spun it out to the day preceding 
the one fixed for a final adjournment. Several 
of the members went over to Manchester [a 
village on the opposite side of the river] in the 
evening, with an intention, it is to be presumed, 
of returning the next morning. The severity of 
the night rendered their passage back the next 
morning impossible. The impatience of the mem- 
bers was such as might be supposed. Some were 



SINGULAR FATE OF THE MEASURE. 599 

for stigmatizing the absentees, and adjourning. 
The rest were, some for one thing, some for 
another. 

"At length, it was agreed to wait until the 
next day. The next day presented the same 
obstruction in the river. A canoe was sent over 
for inquiry by the Manchester party ; but they 
did not choose to venture themselves. The im- 
patience increased ; warm resolutions were agi- 
tated. They ended, however, in an agreement 
to wait one day more. On the morning of the 
third day the prospect remained the same. Pa- 
tience would hold out no longer; an adjournment 
to the last day of March" (equivalent to an ad- 
journment sine die, as the official term of the 
legislature then expired) "ensued. The question 
to be decided is, whether a bill which had passed 
the House of Delegates and been assented to by 
the Senate, but not sent down to the House, nor 
enrolled, nor examined, nor signed by the two 
speakers, and consequently not of record, is or is 
not a law." 

The lex parliamentaria was as inexorable as the 
unbridged torrent ; and thus was unfortunately 
still left open a question which continued for 
years to be a source of bitter waters both in 
the foreign and domestic politics of America. 

The question of a public provision for the 
support of religion, which was under the consid- 
eration of the legislature at its last session, was 
renewed at an early period of the present 



600 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

It was brought before the House upon a peti- 
tion of a number of the inhabitants of Isle of 
Wight County, setting forth the concern they 
felt at seeing the countenance of the civil power 
wholly withdrawn from the support of religion, 
on the influence of which the happiness and 
prosperity of the country so essentially depend, 
— alleging that it is a principle as old as society 
itself, that whatever conduces to the advantage 
of all should be borne by all, and praying, 
therefore, that an act be passed to compel every 
one to contribute something, in proportion to 
his property, for the support of religion. 1 

This petition was referred to the committee 
of the whole House on the state of the Com- 
monwealth. We learn from Mr. Madison's corre- 
spondence that Mr. Henry was the great champion 
of the proposition. In a few days the committee 
reported a resolution, drawn, doubtless, by Mr. 
Henry, declaring that "the people of the Com- 
monwealth, according to their respective abilities, 
ought to pay a moderate tax or contribution for 
the support of the Christian religion, or of some 
Christian church, denomination, or communion of 
Christians, or of some form of Christian worship." 
The resolution was adopted in the House by a 
vote of 47 to 32, and a special committee, of 
which Mr. Henry was chairman, was appointed 
to bring in a bill in pursuance of it. 2 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 11 

2 Idem, p. 19. 



ASSESSMENT FOR SUPPORT OF RELIGION. G01 

Petitions continued to come in from other 
counties, urging the adoption of the measure by 
the same considerations which were set forth in 
the petition from Isle of Wight, and alleging, in 
addition, that "the rapid decline of religion within 
a few years past" proceeded, in the opinion of 
the petitioners, from the want of some general 
provision by the legislature for its support. 1 
What is especially remarkable is, that in a me- 
morial presented by the united clergy of the 
Presbyterian Church — a body which had hith- 
erto distinguished itself by its zeal in favor of 
the principle of unlimited religious freedom — an 
opinion was now expressed, as cited in the Jour- 
nal of the House of Delegates, that " a general 
assessment for the support of religion ought to 
be extended to those who profess the public 
worship of the Deity." 2 One exception only is 
shown by the Journal to the current of popular 
opinion which reached the legislature in the form 
of petitions ; and that occurs in the petition of 
certain inhabitants of the county of Rockbridge, 
deprecating "the interference of the legislature 
in aid of religion, as unequal, impolitic, and be- 
yond their power." 3 

It is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that, 
among a people accustomed from the earliest 
times to see religion lean for support on the 

1 Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 32. 

2 Idem, p. 21. 

3 Idem, p. 49. 

VOL. I. 51 



G02 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

arm of secular power, an apprehension should 
have been felt of its decline upon the withdrawal 
of that support ; and that, under these circum- 
stances, many enlightened minds did not, at first, 
perceive the departure from fundamental princi- 
ples, as well as the dangerous precedent, in the 
measure now proposed. Besides Mr. Henry, who 
was the leading advocate and champion of the 
measure, it is known that General Washing-ton 
and Richard Henry Lee 1 at first favored it ; and 
in the House of Delegates, several of those rising 
and distinguished men who were the intimate 
friends of Mr. Madison, and almost invariably 
acted with him on public questions, — such as 
Henry Tazewell, John Marshall, and his late col- 
league in Congress, Mr. Jones, — now separated 
from him on the question of the general assess- 
ment. 

It is an honorable proof of the firmness of his 
character, as well as of the depth of his views 
and of his acquaintance with the great lessons 
of history, that, amid the general favor and im- 
posing sanction which this measure met with, 
he stood the unfaltering and, in debate, almost 
the solitary opponent of it. What adds to the 
weight of his testimony against the measure, 
and enhances the merit of his opposition to it, 
in a moral point of view, is, that to the cause 

1 Mr. Leo, having been elected sion of the legislature, did not take 
one of the representatives of the his seat in the House of Delegates 
State in Congress, at the last ses- at the present session. 



OUTLINE OF MR. MADISON'S SPEECH. 603 

of religion itself he was a sincere friend, as he 
was also an enlightened believer in the truth 
and divine authority of the Christian system. 
But in aii enforced union between religion and 
the State he saw only omens of evil to both, 
and a fatal departure from principles which he 
held sacred. 

We have no report of the speeches made by 
him in opposition to this measure ; but among 
his papers is a relic of great interest, in the 
skeleton of what was probably his leading speech 
on the occasion, written on the torn back of a 
letter, in a very condensed hand and with many 
abbreviations. As a sample of the only kind of 
preparation he was in the habit of making even 
for his most elaborate parliamentary efforts, as 
well as on account of the intrinsic value of its 
contents, we subjoin this relic, for the instruction 
no less than the curiosity of the reader. It will 
be seen, small as is the space occupied by the 
written programme of the argument, that it con- 
tains the elements of a profound, comprehensive, 
and exhaustive discussion of the great subject in 
all its relations. 

We learn from it that Mr. Madison contended, 
first, that the regulation of religion was not within 
the province of the civil power, and that every 
attempt of the kind tended necessarily to ulti- 
mate projects of compulsory uniformity; next, 
that religion stands in no need of artificial props, 
and that the history of the world proves that it 



604 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

had been invariably corrupted by legal establish- 
ments, which propositions he illustrated and en- 
forced by a review of primitive Christianity, of 
the Reformation, and the general progress of re- 
ligious liberty; that the interests of the State 
would be seriously injured by the proposed meas- 
ure, in discouraging the immigration into it of 
those who set a proper value on religious freedom, 
as well as by furnishing new motives for the em- 
igration of many of its present inhabitants ; that 
the decay of public morals complained of was in 
no degree attributable to the want of any legal 
provision for the support of religion, but was the 
result, in general, of a long-continued state of 
war, of bad laws, and of a loose administration 
of justice ; and that the true and proper reme- 
dies would be found in the return and discipline 
of peace, in laws cherishing virtue, in a more 
regular administration of justice, and in the in- 
fluence of good example and of voluntary re- 
ligious associations. He then showed, that, as 
the benefits of the proposed provision were to 
be limited to Christian societies and churches, it 
would devolve upon the courts of law to deter- 
mine what constitutes Christianity, and thus, 
amid the great diversity of creeds and sects, to 
set up by their fiat a standard of orthodoxy on 
the one hand and of heresy on the other, which 
would be destructive of the rights of private 
conscience. He argued, finally, that the propo- 
sition dishonored Christianity by resting it upon 



NOTES OF ME. MADISON'S SPEECH. 



G05 



a basis of mercenary support, and concluded with 
vindicating its holy character from such a re- 
proach, contending that its true and best sup- 
port was in the principle of universal and perfect 
liberty established by the Bill of Rights, and 
which was alone in consonance with its own 
pure and elevated precepts. 1 

A considerable period elapsed after the adop- 
tion of the resolution in favor of the principle 
of a general assessment, before any bill was re- 
ported to carry it into effect. This delay pro- 
duced doubts whether the friends of the measure 



1 The following is the skeleton 

of Mr. Madison's speech, referred 

to in the text, as we find it among 

his papers : — 

" I. Rel. not 'within purview of civil au- 
thority. 

" Tendency of estabs Xnty — 1. to project 
of uniformity. 2. to penal laws for sup- 
ports it. 

" Progress of Gen. Asses' proves this ten- 
dency. 

" Difference between estabg and tolerat; 
ing error. 

" True question — not Is Rel. necessy, — 
but 

"II. are Kel. EstaW» necesy for Religion? 
No. 

" 1. propensity of man to Religion. 

"2. Experience shews Rel. corrupted by 
E3tabt*- 

"3. Downfall of States mentioned by Mr. 
Henry — happened, where there was estab'- 

"4. Experience gives no model of GenI 
Asst. 

"5. Case of Pa. explained — not solitary 
— N.J. See const" of it — R. I. — N. Y.— 
D. 

" 6. Case of primitive Xnty. 
of Reformation, 
of Dissenters formerly. 

" 7. Progress of Religious liberty. 

m. Policy — 

" 1. promote emigrations from State 

51* 



"2. prevent immig. into it, as asylum. 
" IV. Necessity of Estabt inferred from state 
of country. 

" True causes of disease. 



" 1. war 
"2. bad laws 



common to other States, 
and produce same com- 
plaints in N. E. 

" 3. pretext from taxes. 

"4. state of administration of justice. 

" 5. transition from old to new plan. 

'• 6. policy and hopes of friends to G. Asst. 

" True remedies — not Estabt- — but, being 

out of war, 

" 1. Laws to cherish virtue. 

"2. administration of justice. 

"3. personal example — associations for 
Rel. 

" 4. By present vote, cut off hope of G. 
ass'. 

"5. Education of youth. 

"V. Probable defects of Bill, when pre- 
pared. 

" What is Xnty, courts of Law to de- 
cide. 

"Is it Trinitarianism, Arianism, Socin- 
ianLsm? Is it salvation by faith or works 
also, &c. &c. 

" Ends in what is orthodoxy, what her 
esy. 

" VI. Dishonors Christianity. 
" panegyric on it, on our side. 
" Decl. Rights." 



606 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

would persist in it. Mr. Madison, writing to Mr. 
Monroe on the 14th of November, 1784, says : 
"The principal attention of the House has been 
and is still occupied with a scheme for a general 
assessment; — 47 have carried it against 32. In 
its present form, it excludes all but Christian sects. 
The Presbyterian clergy have remonstrated against 
any narrow principles, but indirectly favor a more 
comprehensive establishment. I think the bot- 
tom will be enlarged, and that a trial will be 
made of the practicability of the project." 

Writing again to Mr. Monroe on the 27th of 
the same month, he says : " The bill for a relig- 
ious assessment has not yet been brought in. 
Mr. Henry, the father of the scheme, is gone up 
to his seat for his family, and will no more sit 
in the House of Delegates, — a circumstance very 
inauspicious to his offspring." And in a letter, 
written on the same day, to another friend, he 
says : " You will have heard of the vote in favor 
of the general assessment. The bill is not yet 
brought in, and I question whether it will be ; 
or if so, whether it will pass." 

At length, however, on the 3d day of Decem- 
ber, — three weeks after the adoption of the res- 
olution, — the bill was introduced. 1 But, in the 
mean time, another subject involving the inter- 
ests of religious societies, and which, in the 
sequel, appears to have exercised an important 
influence on the fate of the proposition for a 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1 784, p. 52. 






ACT INCORPORATING EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 607 

general assessment, was taken up. On the 17th 
of November, 1784, a resolution had passed the 
House of Delegates by a very large majority, 
(62 to 23,) in favor of the "incorporation of all 
societies of the Christian religion which may 
apply for the same." 1 Mr. Madison here again 
voted with the minority. On the same clay, leave 
was given to bring in a bill " to incorporate the 
clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church " ; and 
a committee, of which Mr. Henry was the second- 
named member, was appointed to prepare it, 

This bill was not- reported until Mr. Henry 
had left the House and entered upon the duties 
of the chief executive office, to which he had re- 
cently been again elected ; but it was well known 
that he favored the bill, having been, as we have 
seen, the chief patron of a kindred measure 
brought before the legislature at its last session. 
The bill now reported was free from many of the 
objections which were felt and urged against the 
one presented on the former occasion. It was no 
longer a bill to incorporate the " clergy of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church," as distinct from the laity, 
— but to incorporate u the Protestant Episcopal 
Church," embracing both clergy and laity. Other 
amendments were made, or were supposed to have 
been made, in its progress through the commit- 
tee of the whole House, which still further les- 
sened the objections to its passage ; and it was 
felt that there was one argument at least, of a 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 27. 



608 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

legitimate and practical nature, in its favor, aris- 
ing from the necessity of some sort of incorpo- 
ration to enable the church to hold and manage 
its property. 

But the consideration by which Mr. Madison 
was induced finally to give a reluctant vote for 
the passage of the measure was this. "A neg- 
ative of the bill," he said, "would have doubled 
the eagerness and pretexts for a much greater 
evil, — a general assessment, — which, there is 
good ground to believe, was parried by this par- 
tial gratification of its warmest votaries." * When 
the impending danger of the greater evil was 
ultimately averted, he took a decided and active 
part in the movement which led, at an early 
da}r, to the repeal of the incorporating act. 

This measure being passed on the 22d of De- 
cember, the House of Delegates, on the same 
day, resolved itself into a committee of the whole 
to consider the assessment bill, which had been 
reported under the title of a bill " establishing a 
provision for teachers of the Christian religion." 
It was discussed for two days in committee of 
the whole, and the opposition to it was renewed 
with great spirit and vigor. Several amendments 
were made ; and on the second day, the bill, 
with the amendments, was ordered to be en- 
grossed and read the third time. On the succeed- 
ing day, (the 24th of December,) the opponents 
of the measure, gallantly continuing the struggle 

1 Letter to Mr. Jefferson, of the 0th of January, 1785. 



GENERAL ASSESSMENT BILL POSTPONED. 609 

to the last, moved that the third reading of the 
bill be "postponed until the fourth Thursday in 
November next," — a clay beyond the term of 
the existing legislature. The motion was carried 
by a vote of 45 to 38. 1 This result, though not 
a final and decisive victory, was at least a 
drawn battle, which, considering the large nu- 
merical odds with which the contest opened 
against the opponents of the projected assess- 
ment, was matter of just felicitation to all who 
clung to the standard of an unqualified freedom 
in religion. 

Mr. Madison, in writing to Mr. Jefferson im- 
mediately after the adjournment of the legislature, 
summed up the history of the long and arduous 
struggle in the following quiet manner, abstain- 
ing, with characteristic oblivion of self, from the 
slightest allusion to the leading and distinguished 
part he had borne in the transactions he records. 

"A resolution for a legal provision for the 
1 teachers of the Christian religion' had, early in 
the session, been proposed by Mr. Henry, and, in 
spite of all the opposition that could be mus- 
tered, carried by 47 against 32 votes. Many 
petitions from below the Blue Ridge had prayed 
for such a law; and though several from the 
Presbyterian laity beyond it were in a contrary 
style, the clergy of that sect favored it. The 
other sects seemed to be passive. The resolu- 
tion lay some weeks before a bill was brought 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 8^ 



610 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

in, and the bill, some weeks before it was called 
for. After the passage of the Incorporating Act, 
it was taken np, and, on the third reading, or- 
dered, by a small majority, to be printed for 
consideration. The bill, in its present dress, pro- 
poses a tax of per cent, on all taxable 

property for support of teachers of the Christian 
religion. Each person, when he pays his tax, is 
to name the society to which he dedicates it ; 
and in case of refusal to do so, the tax is to be 
applied to the maintenance of a school in the 
county. As the bill stood for some time, the 
application, in such cases, was to be made by the 
legislature to pious uses." 

Immediately after the vote which postponed 
the further consideration of the subject to the 
next session of the legislature, a motion was 
made and carried that copies of the bill, together 
with the ayes and noes on the question of post- 
ponement, be printed for distribution in the sev- 
eral counties of the Commonwealth, and that 
" the people thereof be requested to signify their 
opinion respecting the adoption of such a meas- 
ure to the next session of the legislature." Thus 
was an appeal formally taken, in this vital cause 
of religious freedom, to the supreme and ultimate 
tribunal in representative governments. With 
what untiring zeal, and with what irresistible 
force of eloquence and logic, Mr. Madison pleaded 
the great cause before that tribunal, and what 
was the final judgment pronounced by it, we 
shall hereafter see. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Visit of Washington and Lafayette to the Legislature of Virginia — 
Addresses to them, and their Replies — Washington takes a deep 
Interest in the Improvement of the navigable Rivers of Virginia, 
to command the Trade of the West — His able Letter to Governor 
Harrison on the Subject laid before the Legislature — Leading 
and active Part taken by Mr. Madison in Cooperation with him 
— Washington appointed by the Legislature of Virginia a Com- 
missioner to concert with the Legislature of Maryland the Pro- 
visions of a joint Act for improving and extending the Navigation 
of the Potomac — Repairs to Annapolis — Remarkable Letter ad- 
dressed by him to Mr. Madison in Explanation of the Proceedings 
and Results of his Mission — Mr. Madison introduces Measures to 
carry into full Effect the Arrangements agreed upon at Annap- 
olis — Other Measures brought forward by Mr. Madison to com- 
plete the System of Interior Communications for the State — 
Improvement of James River — Communication between Elizabeth 
River and Albemarle Sound — Reflections of Mr. Madison upon 
the vast Importance and future Consequences of these Public 
Works — Homage rendered by him to Washington's Greatness of 
Mind in so eai-nestly engaging in them — Brings in a Bill to 
confer upon him, in the Name of the State, a number of Shares 
in the Works authorized — Adjournment of the Legislature — 
Agitation among the People on the Assessment Bill for Support 
of Religious Teachers — Deep Interest felt by Mr. Madison in the 
Progress of the Question — His Letters to Mr. Monroe on the Sub- 



612 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ject — Prepares " Memorial and Remonstrance " against the As- 
sessment, to be circulated among the People — Memorial covered 
with Signatures in every Part of the State — It decides forever 
the Fate of the Proposition before the Legislature — Extraordi- 
nary Merits of the Paper — A Monument in itself of the Genius, 
Ability, and Love of Liberty of the Author. 

The proceedings of the legislature, during its 
present session, were agreeably diversified by a 
visit from General Washington and his friend 
and companion in arms, the gallant Lafayette. 
Washington arrived on the 14th of November, 
1784, a few days before Lafayette. On the 15th, 
the House of Delegates adopted the following- 
resolution, which bears evident traces of Mr. 
Madison's pen : — 

" The House being informed of the arrival of 
General Washington in this city, — 

" Resolved, nemine contradicente, That, as a mark 
of their reverence for his character and affection 
to his person, a committee of five be appointed 
to wait upon him, with the respectful regards of 
this House, to express to him the satisfaction 
they feel in the opportunity, afforded by his 
presence, of offering this tribute to his merits ; 
and to assure him, that, as they not only retain 
the most lasting impressions of the transcendent 
services rendered in his late public character, 
but have, since his return to private life, experi- 
enced proofs that no change of situation can 
turn his thoughts from the welfare of his coun- 
try, so his happiness can never cease to be an 



WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE AT RICHMOND. G13 

object of their most devout wishes and fervent 
supplications." 

The committee appointed to perform this grate- 
ful duty consisted of Mr. Henry, Mr. Jones of 
King George, Mr. Madison, Mr. Carter Henry 
Harrison, and Colonel Edward Carrington. Gen- 
eral Washington replied to the committee with 
blended dignity and modesty, and with that tact 
and gracefulness of expression, inspired by true 
feeling, which so remarkably distinguished his 
addresses on such occasions. 

" My sensibility, gentlemen," he said, " is deeply 
affected by this distinguished mark of the affec- 
tionate regard of your House. I lament, upon 
this occasion, the want of those powers which 
would enable me to do justice to my feelings, 
and shall rely on your indulgent report to sup- 
ply the defect. At the same time, I pray you 
to present for me the strongest assurances of 
unalterable affection and gratitude for this last 
pleasing and flattering attention of my country." 

Lafayette arrived on the 18th of the month ; 
and a committee, of which Mr. Madison was 
again named a member, was appointed to wel- 
come him with the affectionate respects of the 
House of Delegates. The resolution adopted on 
the occasion contained an appropriate and well- 
merited tribute to the able military conduct of 
the youthful General during his command in 
Virginia, in the memorable campaign of 1781. 
The committee- was instructed to assure him 

vol. i. 52 



614 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

"that the General Assembly of Virginia could 
not review the scenes of blood and danger 
through which we have arrived at the blessings 
of peace, without being touched in the most 
lively manner with the recollection, not only of 
the invaluable services for which the United 
States at large are so much indebted to him, but 
of that conspicuous display of cool intrepidity 
and wise conduct during his command in the 
campaign of 1781, which, by having so essentially 
served this State in particular, have given him 
so just a title to its particular acknowledg- 
ments." 

In his reply, the Marquis made the following 
handsome and feeling allusions to his service in 
Virginia, to the recollections which bound him 
affectionately to the State, and to his personal 
observation of her fidelity and exertions in the 
common cause. 

" Through the continent, gentlemen," he said, 
" it is most pleasing to me to join with my 
friends in mutual congratulations ; and I need 
not add what my sentiments must be in Virginia, 
where, step by step, have I so keenly felt for 
her distress, so eagerly enjoyed her recovery. 
Our armed force was obliged to retreat ; but 
your patriotic hearts stood unshaken. And while, 
either at that period or in our better hours, my 
obligations to you are numberless, I am happy 
in this opportunity to observe that the excellent 
services of your militia were continued with un- 



PLANS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS. 615 

paralleled steadiness. Impressed with the neces- 
sity of federal union, I was the more pleased in 
the command of an army so peculiarly federal, 
as Virginia herself freely bled in defence of her 
sister States." 

The visit of these illustrious guests at the- cap- 
ital of Virginia continued for a week, and was a 
rich feast of patriotism to all, while it lasted. 
On the part of Washington, besides the lively 
gratification of renewing his personal intercourse 
with friends from whom he had been long sep- 
arated by the stern demands of public duty, the 
visit had a further motive in his desire to pro- 
mote with the legislature some plan for connect 
ing the Eastern and Western waters through 
Virginia, for the purpose of securing to her the 
share which nature designed for her in the vast 
future commerce of the West. This great inter- 
est, immediately after the close of the war, en- 
gaged at the same moment the meditations of 
Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, and had 
been the subject of correspondence and mutual 
consultation between them. 1 

A few days before the commencement of the 
present session of the legislature, General Wash- 

1 See manuscript letter of Mr. Marshall's Life of Washington, 

Jefferson to Mr. Madison of the vol. n. p. 66,) — letter of General 

20th of February, 1784, — letters Washington to Mr. Jefferson of 

of Mr. Madison to Mr. Jefferson the 28th of March, 1 784, (Sparks's 

of the 16th of March and 25th of Washington, vol. ix. p. 30,) —and 

April, 1784, — letter of Mr. Jeffer- correspondence between General 

son to General Washington of the Washington and Mr. Madison in 

15th of March, 1784, (extract in November and December, 1784. 



616 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

ington had addressed a very able letter to Colonel 
Benjamin Harrison, then governor of the State, 
exhibiting, in a striking and conclusive manner, the 
immense importance of the proposed connection, 
both in a commercial and political point of view ; 
and showing that the two great rivers of Vir- 
ginia, which have their sources in the Apalachian 
Mountains, if promptly and properly improved, 
presented the shortest, easiest, and least expen- 
sive communications, between the tide-waters of 
the Atlantic slope and the fertile regions of the 
West and Northwest, of any which the continent 
offered. In the close of his letter, he said, as if 
prophetically, — " Upon the whole, the object, in 
my estimation, is one of vast commercial and 
political importance. In this light I think pos- 
terity will consider it, and regret, if our conduct 
should give them cause, that the present favor- 
able moment to secure so great a blessing to 
them was neglected." 

This communication, though not of an official 
character, presented views of so much public in- 
terest and importance, and from a source com- 
manding so much of the public consideration, 
that the governor laid it before the General As- 
sembly. Of the three distinguished men between 
whom these views had been already freely inter- 
changed in their private correspondence, with 
that enlightened forecast and patriotic solicitude 
for the future greatness and welfare of their 
country which animated and directed them all, 



MADISON COOPERATES WITH WASHINGTON. 617 

Mr. Madison was the only one now in a position 
to render his assistance, through the action of 
the public authorities of the State, to cany them 
into effect. 

In a letter of the 9th of January, 1785, to Mr. 
Jefferson, who was then one of the ministers of 
the United States in Europe, he gives the follow- 
ing interesting account of the passage of the " Act 
for opening and extending the navigation of the 
Potomac River." The act required the concur- 
rence of the legislature of Maryland, — in obtain- 
ing which General Washington exhibited, in civil 
action, no small portion of the ardor, energy, 
and devotion that had been displayed by him in 
the battle-fields of Trenton, Princeton, and Mon 
mouth. 

"The subject of clearing the great rivers [Po- 
tomac and James] was brought forward early in 
the session under the auspices of General Wash- 
ington, who had written an interesting private 
letter to Governor Harrison, which the latter 
communicated to the General Assembly. The 
conversation of the General, during a visit paid 
to Richmond in the course of the session, still 
further impressed the magnitude of the object 
on sundry members. Shortly after his departure, 
a joint memorial from a number of citizens of 
Virginia and Maryland, interested in the Poto- 
mac, was presented to the Assembly, stating the 
practicability and importance of the work, and 
praying for an act of incorporation and grant 

52* 



618 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

of perpetual tolls to the undertakers of it. A 
bill had been prepared at the same meeting 
which produced the memorial, and was transmit- 
ted to Richmond at the same time. A like me- 
morial and bill went to Annapolis, where the 
legislature of Maryland was sitting. 

" The Assembly here lent a ready ear to the 
project; but a difficulty arose from the height 
of the tolls proposed, the danger of destroying 
the uniformity essential in the proceedings of 
the two States by altering them, and the scar- 
city of time for negotiating with Maryland a bill 
satisfactory to both States. Short as the time 
was, however, the attempt was decided on, and 
the negotiation committed to Washington him- 
self. General Gates, who happened to be in the 
way, and Colonel Blackburn, were associated 
with him. The latter did not act: the two 
former pushed immediately to Annapolis, where 
the sickness of General Gates threw the whole 
agency on General Washington. By his exer- 
tions, in concert with committees of the two 
branches of the legislature, an amendment of the 
plan was digested in a few days, passed through 
both Houses in one day with nine dissenting 
voices only, and dispatched for Richmond just 
in time for the session. A corresponding act was 
immediately introduced, and passed without op- 
position." 

The mission of General Washington to Annap- 
olis on this errand of public beneficence, so soon 



MISSION OF WASHINGTON TO ANNAPOLIS. 619 

after the close of his great military career, forms 
one of the most beautiful and instructive inci- 
dents in the drama of his life, and proves, by 
the eloquence of a noble example, how true it 
is that " peace hath her victories 110 less re- 
nowned than war." The resolution which com- 
mitted to him, with his two colleagues, the ne- 
gotiation mentioned by Mr. Madison, was passed 
by the legislature on the 14th of December, 1784. 
Some days elapsed before it could be communi- 
cated to him at Mount Vernon. He lost no 
time, after intelligence of his appointment, in set- 
ting off on his mission ; and from his arrival at 
Annapolis to the 28th of the month, he was in- 
cessantly and earnestly engaged in discussing and 
arranging, with committees of the two Houses 
of the Maryland legislature, the necessary but 
complex details of the measure in hand, and 
recommending its importance and advantages to 
the favorable consideration of the members. 

We have now before us an autograph letter 
addressed by him to Mr. Madison on the last- 
mentioned day — rendering an account of his 
proceedings and the results of his mission — 
which, in its hurried chirography, so unlike his 
usual careful handwriting, and in the interlinea- 
tions that mark its face, presents to the eye a 
vivid picture of the fatigue and exhaustion which 
the long-continued exertions and unremitted self- 
devotion of the writer had at length brought in 
their train. We cannot deny the reader the 



620 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

gratification of perusing a few extracts from this 
rapid and unpretending production, which has hith- 
erto rested unknown in a jDrivate repository, but 
which will be regarded by posterity, perhaps, as 
one of the most characteristic and interesting 
memorials of the unbounded energies and high 
civic talents of the great American, when called 
into action by a patriotic sense of duty. 

" Annapolis, 28th December, 1 784. 

"Dear Sir: I have been favored with your 
letter of 11th instant. 

"The proceedings of the conference, and the 
act 'and resolutions of the legislature consequent 
thereupon, herewith transmitted to the Assembly, 
are so full, and explanatory of the motives which 
governed in this business, that it is scarcely ne- 
cessary for me to say anything in addition to 
them, except that this State seems highly im- 
pressed with the importance of the objects which 
we have had under consideration, and is very 
desirous of seeing them accomplished. We have 
reduced most of the tolls from what they were 
in the first bill, and have added something; to a 
few others. Upon the whole, we have made 
them as low as we conceived, from the best in- 
formation before us, they can be fixed without 
hazarding the plan altogether 

" To secure success, and to give a vigor to the 
undertaking, it was judged advisable for each 
State to contribute (upon the terms of private 



HIS LETTER TO MR. MADISON. 621 

subscribers) to the expense of it, especially as 
it might have a happy influence on the minds 
of the Western settlers ; and it may be observed 
here that only part of this money can be called 
for immediately, provided the work goes on, and 
afterwards only in the proportion of its progres- 
sion. Though there is no obligation on the State 
to adopt this, (if it is inconvenient, or repug- 
nant to their wishes,) yet I should be highly 
pleased to hear that they had done so. Our ad- 
vantages will, most assuredly, be equal to those 
of Maryland, and our public spirit ought not, in 
my opinion, to be less 

"Matters might, perhaps, have been better 'di- 
gested, if more time had been taken ; but the 
fear of not getting the report to Richmond be- 
fore the Assembly would have risen occasioned 
more hurry than accuracy, and even real despatch. 
But to alter the act now, further than to accom- 
modate it to circumstances, where it is essential, 
or to remedy an obvious error, if any should 
be discovered, will not do. The bill passed 
this Assembly with only nine dissenting voices, 
and got through both Houses in a clay, — so ear- 
nest were the. members of getting it to you in 
time. 

" It is now near twelve o'clock at night ; and I 
am writing with an aching head, having been con- 
stantly employed in this business since the 22d 
instant, without assistance from my colleagues, — 
General Gates having been sick the whole time, 



622 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

and Colonel Blackburn not attending. But for 
this, I would be more explicit. 

"I am, with great esteem and respect, 

"Dear sir, your most ob't serv., 

" G. Washington. 

" James Madison, Esq. 

"P. S. I am ashamed to send you such a let- 
ter, but cannot give you a fairer one. G. W." 

The head of Washington, so recently entwined 
with the laurel wreath of military triumph, ach- 
ing over the details of a bill for the improve- 
ment of his native river, is a suggestive study 
for both patriotism and philosophy. 

After providing for the improvement of the 
Potomac to the highest point to which it was 
susceptible of navigation, it was necessary, with 
a view to the great object of commanding the 
commerce of the West, that some communica- 
tion should be opened between that point and 
the nearest navigable waters of the Ohio. Two 
routes of communication were in contemplation : 
one from the head of the Potomac to the Cheat 
or Monongahela River, and passing through the 
territory of Virginia or Maryland ; the other from 
the mouth of Wills's Creek to the Yohioganey, 
and passing through the territory of Pennsylva- 
nia. It was agreed by Maryland and Virginia to 
open the first by appropriating a thousand pounds 
each to the undertaking, and appointing joint 
commissioners to superintend and direct the work. 



MEASURES PROPOSED BY MR. MADISON. G23 

For the second the requisite authority could be 
obtained only by an application to the legisla- 
ture of Pennsylvania. Mr. Madison introduced 
resolutions providing for both objects, which were 
immediately passed. 1 

He also brought forward a proposition for rep- 
resenting to the State of Pennsylvania the great 
advantages that would result to her citizens from 
the proposed communication between the waters 
of the Potomac and the Ohio ; and asking that, 
in consideration of those advantages and for the 
encouragement of the enterprise, she would grant 
a free transit for all produce or merchandise 
passing by the line of the improvement through 
her limits; and that articles imported into the 
State through that channel, for sale or consump- 
tion there, should be subjected to no other du- 
ties or imposts than they would be liable to, if 
imported by any other channel. This proposition 
was, in like manner, adopted. 2 

In conjunction with the measures for the im- 
provement of the river Potomac and its connec- 
tions, the attention of the legislature was naturally 
turned to that other great avenue for the com- 
merce of the West with which the bounty of 
Providence had endowed Virginia. A bill for 
"opening and extending the navigation of James 
River" was brought in by Mr. Madison, 3 and 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 101. 

2 Idem, p. 91. 

3 Idem, pp. 70 and 75. 



624 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

finally passed with provisions analogous to those 
contained in the act for the improvement of the 
Potomac. 

As a necessary complement of this measure, 
and still keeping in view the great object of a 
commercial intercourse with the West, Mr. Mad- 
ison moved that commissioners be appointed to 
make an accurate examination and survey of the 
upper parts of James River, of the nearest nav- 
igable waters flowing into the Ohio, and of the 
best route of communication between the two, 
and to report the results of their examination to 
the next General Assembly, in order that proper 
steps be then taken to complete the connection. 
Looking, at the same time, to a commercial in- 
tercourse with the South through the channels 
which nature had provided for Virginia on that 
side of her territory, he moved also that an ex- 
amination be made of the best course for a canal 
from the waters of Elizabeth River to those of 
Albemarle Sound, that the result be reported to 
the ensuing session of the legislature, and that 
the cooperation of North Carolina, if necessary, 
be invited in the execution of the work. All 
these propositions were adopted. 1 

Thus, by the direct agency of Mr. Madison in 
the legislature of Virginia, was the broad foun- 
dation laid of that whole system of internal 
improvements which has ever since been the 
cherished object of her policy, though, unfortu- 

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 102. 



HIS TRIBUTE TO. WASHINGTON. 625 

nately, not followed up by succeeding legislators 
with the energy and promptitude necessary to 
secure the prize that nature seemed to have de- 
signed for her. It is edifying to observe how 
quickly and earnestly the statesmen of the Revo- 
lution, uniting with the great chief whose opera- 
tions they had sustained in the field, turned their 
attention to the fruitful and durable labors of 
peace, the moment the contest for national inde- 
pendence was ended. General Washington, by 
the weight of his opinions and his commanding 
influence in the country, and Mr. Madison, by 
his exertions in the legislature, inaugurated this 
noble career of civic wisdom and practical use- 
fulness on the theatre of Virginia. 

How truly Mr. Madison was penetrated with 
the dignity and importance of these labors, and 
with what sagacity he cast the horoscope of the 
fortunes of his native State as connected with 
them, if they had been carried forward with the 
requisite energy to a seasonable consummation, 
is shown by what he says, in a letter written at 
the time, of the agency of General Washington 
in them; much of which will be felt to be ap- 
plicable to the writer himself, however sedulously 
he avoided the remotest allusion to the part, 
prominent as it was, he had performed in the 
common service. 

"The earnestness," he says, "with which Gen- 
eral Washington espouses the undertaking is 
hardly to be described, and shows that a mind 

VOL. I. 53 



626 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

like his, capable of great views, and which has 
long been occupied with them, cannot bear a 
vacancy. And surely he could not have chosen 
an occupation more worthy of succeeding to that 
of establishing the political rights of his country 
than the patronage of works for the extensive 
and lasting improvement of its natural advan- 
tages, — works which will double the value of 
half the lands within the Commonwealth, will 
extend its commerce, link with its interests those 
of the Western States, and lessen the emigration 
of its citizens by enhancing the profitableness of 
situations which they now desert in search of 
better." l 

The grateful sentiments of the legislature, 
evoked anew by the deep interest General Wash- 
ington had shown in the permanent prosperity 
and improvement of his native State, sought some 
new and more substantial expression. By some 
persons a direct pension was proposed. But to 
Mr. Madison it seemed that the most delicate and 
appropriate form in which a reward could be 
presented to the sensitive mind of Washington, 
if he could be prevailed on to accept any, was 
to vest in him a certain interest in the stock of 
the companies that had just been established for 
the improvement of the two great rivers of the 
State, — public and noble enterprises on which 
he had already bestowed so much patriotic solici- 
tude. 

' See letter to Mr. Jefferson of the- 9th of January, 1785. 



ACT OF LEGISLATIVE ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 027 

On the motion of Mr. Madison, therefore, leave 
was given to bring in a bill for that purpose ; 
and by the same order of the House he was 
appointed sole committee to prepare and bring it 
in. 1 The bill was immediately reported by him, 
and the day after, was unanimously passed by 
both branches of the legislature. It directed the 
treasurer of the State to make a special sub- 
scription of fifty shares in the Potomac Company, 
(of the value of $444 each share,) and of one 
hundred shares in the James River Company, 
(of the value of $200 each share,) in addition to 
the original subscription made on behalf of the 
State ; and the additional shares, so to be sub- 
scribed for, were declared to be " vested in 
George Washington, Esq., his heirs and assigns 
forever, in as effectual a manner as if the said 
subscriptions had been made by himself or his 
attorney." 

But the real value of this public recompense, to 
the mind of Washington, was in the preamble of 
the act by which it was offered. The pen of Mr. 
Madison was never more congenially or happily 
employed than in recording the praises of the 
great benefactor of his country. It thus nobly 
set forth in the preamble the motives of the 
grant : — 

"Whereas it is the desire of the representa- 
tives of this Commonwealth to embrace every 
suitable occasion of testifying their sense of the 

i Journal of House of Delegates, October session, 1784, p. 105. 



628 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

unexampled merits of George Washington towards 
his country, and it is their wish in particular 
that those great works for its improvement, which, 
both as springing from the liberty which he has 
been instrumental in establishing, and as encour- 
aged by his patronage, will be durable monu- 
ments of his glory, may be made monuments 
also of the gratitude of his country." Then fol- 
lows the enactment. 1 With this graceful act of 
public sensibility and acknowledgment terminat- 
ed, on the 5th of January, 1785, the session of 
the legislature. 

It was not long after the adjournment of the 
legislature that the minds of the people began 
to be earnestly directed to the consideration of 
the bill proposing a general assessment for " the 
support of teachers of the Christian religion." 
This bill, we have seen, had passed through sev- 
eral stages of its parliamentary progress at the 
late session, and was then ordered to be "en- 

1 Hen. Stat. vol. xi. pp. 525, October, 1785, in Sparks's Wash- 
526. This testimony of the appre- ington, vol. ix. pp. 142, 143. The 
ciation of his native State was shares in the James River Corn- 
received by Washington with the pany were applied by him to the 
same warmth of sensibility and ac- better endowment of Liberty Hall 
knowledgmenl that prompted it on Academy, at Lexington, in Rock- 
the part of the legislature. But bridge County, which afterwards 
he declined to take any personal assumed the name of Washington 
benefit from it, and consented to College ; and the Potomac shares 
hold the stock vested in him by the were set apart by his will, as well 
act only as a trust fund, to be ap- as by a previous assignment, in aid 
plied to some object of public and of the establishment of a university 
general utility. See his noble and in the District of Columbia. See 
graceful letter to the governor, Idem, vol. xi. pp. 3, 4, 14-16, and 
Patrick Henry, dated the 29th of 172, 173. 



ASSESSMENT BILL BEFORE THE PEOPLE. 629 

grossed"; but its third reading was finally post- 
poned to the next meeting of the legislature, 
which was to take place in the month of October 
of the present year. Twenty-four copies of the 
bill, with the ayes and noes on the question of 
postponement, were ordered to be sent to each 
county ; and the people were requested to sig- 
nify their sense, respecting its adoption, to the 
ensuing Assembly. 

Rarely has an issue of more vital importance 
to the liberty and happiness of a free people — 
and yet one which had already divided, and 
might well continue to divide, the opinions of 
good men — been submitted to the direct arbit- 
rament of the popular will. Mr. Madison's con- 
victions upon it were most profound. From 
early manhood to this decisive moment, he had 
been the earnest and steady champion of relig- 
ious liberty in its widest latitude. He had stood 
up nobly and manfully, during the late session 
of the legislature, in opposition to the proposed 
measure, against a most formidable array of tal- 
ents, numbers, popularity, and influence. Allies, 
too, on whom he had counted, as having taken 
a most able and efficient part , in the earlier 
struggles for religious freedom, were now sepa- 
rated from their ancient standard, temporarily at 
least, by the new and seductive form in which 
the question was presented. 

Under these circumstances, it may well be con- 
ceived with what deep interest and anxiety Mr. 

53* 



630 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

Madison watched the progress of this great cause 
before the forum where it was to receive its 
final decision. We give the following extracts 
from his correspondence with Mr. Monroe, then 
a delegate in Congress from Virginia, as exhibit- 
ing the successive phases of the important trial. 
On the 12th of April, 1785, he writes to him: — 
"The only 'proceeding of the late session of 
Assembly which makes a noise through the 
country, is that which relates to a general as- 
sessment. The Episcopal people are generally 
for it, though I think the zeal of some of them 
has cooled. The laity of the other sects are gen- 
erally unanimous on the other side. So are all 
the clergy, except the Presbyterian, who seem as 
ready to set up an establishment which is to 
take them in as they were to pull down that 
which shut them out. I do not know a more 
shameful contrast than might be found between 
their memorials on the latter and former occa- 



sion." 



On the 29th of May he writes: "The adver- 
saries to the assessment begin to think the pros- 
pect here flattering to their wishes. The printed 
bill has excited great discussion, and is likely to 
prove the sense of the community to be in favor 
of the liberty now enjoyed. I have heard of 
several counties where the late representatives 
have been laid aside for voting for the bill, and 
not a single one where the reverse has hap- 
pened. The Presbyterian clergy, too, who were 



REMONSTRANCE DRAWN BY MR. MADISON. 631 

in general friends to the scheme, are already in 
another tone, — either compelled by the laity of 
that sect, or alarmed at the probability of farther 
interference of the legislature if they begin to 
dictate in matters of religion." 

On- the 21st of June he again writes: "A 
very warm opposition will be made to this inno- 
vation [the general assessment] by the people 
of the middle and back counties, particularly the 
latter. They do not scruple to declare it an 
alarming usurpation on their fundamental rights; 
and that, though the General Assembly should 
give it the form, they will not give it the validity 
of a law. If there be any limitation to the power 
of the legislature, — particularly if this limitation 
is to be sought in our Declaration of Rights, or 
form of government, — I own the bill appears to 
me to warrant this language of the people." 

It was soon felt that the opposition which had 
been manifested to this measure, with arguments 
of due weight to justify and strengthen the pop- 
ular sentiment, should be embodied in a perma- 
nent and imposing form, and go before the 
legislature under the sign manual of the constit- 
uent body. The noble lead which Mr. Madison 
had taken in the question, and his superior and 
recognized ability, pointed him out at once for 
the task. At the instance of Colonel Mason, Mr. 
George Nicholas, and other distinguished friends 
of religious freedom, he prepared a " Memorial 
and Remonstrance " to the legislature against the 



632 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

proposed assessment, to be circulated among the 
people. In this masterly paper, he discussed the 
question of an establishment of religion by law 
from every possible point of view, — of natural 
right, the inherent limitations of the civil power, 
the interests of religion itself, the genius and 
precepts of Christianity, the warning lessons of 
history, the dictates of a wise and sober policy, 
— and treated them all with a consummate power 
of reasoning, and a force of appeal to the under- 
standings and hearts of the people, that bore 
down every opposing prejudice, and precluded 
reply. It was diffused extensively through the 
State, and was rapidly covered with the signa- 
tures of the voters. 

When the Assembly met in October, the table 
of the House of Delegates almost sunk under 
the weight of the accumulated copies of the me- 
morial sent forward from the different counties, 
each with its long and dense column of sub- 
scribers. The fate of the assessment was sealed. 
The manifestation of the public judgment was 
too unequivocal and overwhelming to leave the 
faintest hope to the friends of the measure It 
was abandoned without a struggle. 1 

1 Some very intelligent writers the bar of the House of Delegates, 

appear to have confounded the in opposition to the assessment bill, 

act " incorporating the Protestant (Evan, and Lit. Mag. vol. ix. pp. 

Episcopal Church" with the Gen- 43-47, cited by Mr. Howison in h'u 

eral Assessment Bill. It has been interesting History of Virginia, vol. 

stated, for example, that in 1785 n. p. 298.) And yet another most 

the Rev. John Blair Smith was respectable authority, belonging to 

heard for three successive days, at the same religious denomination 



HIS ZEAL FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 633 

Under cover of this signal victory won before 
the people by the irresistible voice of truth, the 
declaratory act for the " establishment of relig- 
ious freedom," which had been drawn by Mr. 
Jefferson, as one of the committee of revisors, 
and presented to the legislature in 1770, with 
the rest of the revised bills, was taken up and 
passed iuto a law. The " Memorial and -Remon- 
strance " had cleared away every obstruction, and 
so smoothed the ground before it that its passage 
became a matter of course. 

When the early and conscientious zeal of Mr. 
Madison in the cause of religious freedom, so 
beautifully and strikingly displayed, even before 
the Revolution, in his correspondence with his 
friend Bradford ; his sagacious and pregnant 
amendment to the Virginia Bill of Rights in 
1776 ; his brave and manly struggle against the 
embattled hosts of the assessment in the legisla- 
ture of 1784; and his glorious authorship of the 
"Memorial and Remonstrance" in 1785 — the 
crowning victory in the momentous contest — 
are considered ; to him, of all the men of his age, 
posterity will award the meed of preeminence 
for long, earnest, persevering, and efficient exer- 

with Dr. Smith, (Baird's Relig- copal Church ; and the probability, 

ion in America, p. 110,) relates therefore, is that the reported ar- 

that he had been won over by gument at the bar of the House 

Patrick Henry in favor of the as- was in opposition to that act more 

sessment. Dr. Smith was warmly particularly, and in order to obtain 

opposed, as his correspondence its repeal, which took place a year 

with Mr. Madison shows, to the act afterwards, 
incorporating the Protestant Epis- 



634 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

tions in defence of one of the most precious 
rights of human nature — the basis of every 
other, and the indispensable guarantee of civil 
and political liberty. 

As a triumphant plea in that great cause, 
never surpassed in power or eloquence by any 
which its stirring interests have called forth, and 
as a monument of the genius, ability, and love 
of liberty of the author, which, if he had left no 
other behind him, would suffice to transmit his 
name with honor to future ages, and ought to 
render it forever dear to his country, — we annex 
here this noble production of the mind and heart 
of Mr. Madison, that the reader may be enabled 
to form his own estimate* of its merits, as well 
as to profit by its lessons of wisdom and justice. 



Memorial and Remonstrance against the Bill " establishing a legal 
Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion." 

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of 
Virginia: — 

We the subscribers, citizens of the said Common wealth, having 
taken into serious consideration a bill printed by order of the late ses- 
sion of the General Assembly, entitled " A Bill establishing a Provision 
for Teachers of the Christian Religion," and conceiving that the same, 
if finally armed with the sanctions of a law, will be a dangerous abuse 
of power, are bound, as faithful members of a free State, to remon- 
strate against it, and to declare the reasons by which we are deter- 
mined- We remonstrate against the said bill ; — 

Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "that 
religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of 
discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by 



MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE. 635 

force or violence."* The religion, then, of every man must be left to 
the conviction and conscience of every man ; and it is the right of 
every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is, in its na- 
ture, an inalienable right It is inalienable, because the opinions of 
men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own 
minds, cannot follow the dictates of other men ; it is inalienable also, 
because what is here a right towards men is a duty towards the Crea- 
tor. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, 
and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to Him. This duty is 
precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the 
claims of civil society. Before any man can be considered as a mem- 
ber of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor 
of the Universe ; and if a member of civil society who enters into any 
subordinate association must always do it with a reservation of his 
duty to the general authority, much more must every man who be- 
comes a member of any particular civil society, do it with a saving of 
his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain, therefore, 
that, in matters of religion, no man's right is abridged by the institu- 
tion of civil society, and that religion is wholly exempt from its cogni- 
zance. True it is that no other rule exists by which any question 
which may divide a society can be ultimately determined than the will 
of the majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on 
the rights of the minority. 

Because, if religion be exempt from the authority of the society at 
large, still less can it be subject to that of the legislative body. The 
latter are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their ju- 
risdiction is both derivative and limited. It is limited with regard to 
the coordinate departments; more necessarily is it limited with regard 
to the constituent. The preservation of a free government requires, 
not merely that the metes and bounds which separate each depart- 
ment of power be invariably maintained, but more especially that 
neither of them be suffered to overleap the great barrier which defends 
the rights of the people. The rulers who are guilty of such an en- 
croachment exceed the commission from which they derive their au- 
thority, and are tyrants. The people who submit to it are governed 
by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from 
them, and are slaves. 

Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our lib- 
erties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, 
and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The 
* Virginia Bill of Rights, art. 16. 



G36 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened 
itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They 
saw all the consequences in the principle ; and they avoided the conse- 
quences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much 
Boon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can 
establish Christianity to the exclusion of all other religions may estab- 
lish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion 
of all other sects '? that the same authority which can force a citizen 
to contribute threepence only of his property for the support of any 
one establishment may force him to conform to any other establish- 
ment, in all cases whatsoever ? 

Because the bill violates that equality which ought to be the basis of 
every law, and which is more indispensable in proportion as the valid- 
ity or expediency of any law is more liable to be'impeached. " If all 
men are by nature equally free and independent," * all men are to be 
considered as entering into society on equal conditions, — as relin- 
quishing no more, and therefore retaining no less, one than another, of 
their natural rights. Above all, are they to be considered as retaining 
" an equal title to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates 
of conscience." f Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, 
to profess, and to observe the religion which we believe to be of divine 
origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have 
not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this free- 
dom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man. To 
God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered. As the 
bill violates equality by subjecting some to peculiar burdens, so it vio- 
lates the same principle by granting to others peculiar exemptions. 
Are the Quakers and Menonists the only sects who think a compulsive 
support of their religions unnecessary and unwarrantable ? Can their 
piety alone be intrusted with the care of public worship ? Ought 
their religions to be endowed, above all others, with extraordinary 
privileges, by which proselytes may be enticed from all others ? We 
think too favorably of the justice and good sense of these denomina- 
tions to believe that they either covet preeminences over their fellow- 
citizens, or that they will be seduced by them from the common oppo- 
sition to the measure. 

Because the bill implies either that the civil magistrate is a competent 
judge of religious truth, or that he may employ religion as an engine 
of civil policy. The first is an arrogant pretension, falsified by the 
contradictory opinions of rulers in all ages and throughout the world; 
the second, an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation. 
* Virginia Bill of Kights, art. 1. t Idem, art. 16. 



MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE. C37 

Because the establishment proposed by the bill is not requisite for 
the support of the Christian religion. To say that it is, is a contradic- 
tion to the Christian religion itself; for every page of it disavows a de- 
pendence on the [lowers of this world. It is a contradiction to fact, for it 
is known that this religion both existed and flourished not only without 
the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them, 
and not only during the period of miraculous aid, but long after it had 
been left to its own evidence and the ordinary care of Providence. 
Nay, it is a contradiction in terms; for a religion not. invented by 
human policy must have preexisted and been supported before it was 
established by human policy. Moreover, it is to weaken, in those who 
profess this religion, a pious confidence in its innate excellence and 
the patronage of its Author; and to foster, in those who still reject it, a 
suspicion that its friends are too conscious of its fallacies to trust it to 
its own merits. 

Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, in- 
stead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a 
contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal es- 
tablishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? 
More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance 
and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecu- 
tion. Inquire of the teachers of Christianity for the ages in which it 
appeared in its greatest lustre : those of every sect point to the ages 
prior to its incorporation with civil policy. Propose a restoration of 
this primitive state, in which its teachers depended on the voluntary 
rewards of their flocks : many of them predict its downfall. On which 
side ought their testimony to have greatest weight ? when for, or when 
against, their interest ? 

Because the establishment in question is not necessary for the sup- 
port of civil government. If it be urged as necessary for the support 
of civil government only as it is a means of supporting religion, and it 
be not necessary for the latter purpose, it cannot be necessary for the 
former. If religion be not within the cognizance of civil government, 
how can its legal establishment be necessary to civil- government ? 
What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on civil 
society ? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual 
tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority ; in many instances they 
have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny ; in no in- 
stance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. 
Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty may have found an 
established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, insti- 
VOL. I. 54 






638 



LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 









tuted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not. Such a government 
will be best supported by protecting every citizen in the enjoyment of 
his religion with the. same equal hand which protects his person and 
his property, — by neither invading the equal rights of any sect, nor 
Buffering any sect to invade those of another. 

Because the proposed establishme nt is a departure from that gener- 
ous policy which, offering an asylum to the persecuted and oppressed 
of every nation and religion, promised a lustre to our country and an 
accession to the number of its citizens. What a melancholy mark is 
the bill of sudden "degeneracy ! Instead of holding forth an asylum 
to the persecuted, it is itself a signal of persecution. It degrades from 
the equal rank of citizens all those whose opinions in religion do not 
bend to those of the legislative authority. Distant as it may be, in its 
present form, from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree. 
The one is the first step, the other the last, in the career of intolerance. 
The magnanimous sufferer under this cruel scourge, in foreign regions, 
must view the bill as a beacon on our coast, warning him to seek some 
other haven, where liberty and philanthropy, in their due extent, may 
offer a more certain repose from his troubles. 

Because it will have a like tendency to banish our citizens. The 
allurements presented by other situations are every day thinning their 
number. To superadd a fresh motive to emigration, by revoking the 
liberty which they now enjoy, would be the same species of folly which 
has dishonored and depopulated flourishing kingdoms. 

Because it will destroy that moderation and harmony which the for- 
bearance of our laws to intermeddle with religion has produced among 
its several sects. Torrents of blood have been spilled in the Old World, 
in consequence of vain attempts of the secular arm to extinguish relig- 
ious discord by proscribing all differences in religious opinion. Time 
has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow 
and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to as- 
suage the disease. The American theatre has exhibited proofs that 
equal and complete liberty, if it does not wholly eradicate it, suffi- 
ciently destroys its malignant influence on the health and prosperity 
of the State. If, with the salutary effects of this system under our 
own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of religious freedom, we 
know no name which will too severely reproach our foil)'. At least, 
let warning be taken at the first fruits of the threatened innovation. 
The very appearance of the bill has transformed " that Christian for- 
bearance, love, and charity"* which of late mutually prevailed into 
* Virginia Bill of Rights, art. 10. 



MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE. 639 

animosities and jealousies which may not soon be appeased. What 
mischiefs may not be dreaded, should this enemy to the public quiet be 
armed with the force of a law ? 

Because the policy of the bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light 
of Christianity. The first wish of those who enjoy this precious gift 
ought to be that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind. 
Compare the number of those who have as yet received it with the 
number still remaining under the dominion of false religions, and how 
small is the former! Does the policy of the lull tend to lessen the 
disproportion ? No ; it at once discourages those who are strangers to 
the light of revelation from coming into the region of it, and counte- 
nances by example the nations who continue in darkness in shutting 
out those who might convey it to them. Instead of levelling, as far as 
possible, every obstacle to the victorious progress of truth, the bill, 
with an ignoble and unchristian timidity, would circumscribe it with a 
wall of defence against the encroachments of error. 

Because attempts to enforce, by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to so 
great a proportion of citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general, and 
to slacken the bonds of society. If it be diflicult to execute any law 
which is not generally deemed necessary or salutary, what must be the 
case where it is deemed invalid and dangerous ? And what may be 
the effect of so striking an example of impotency in the government 
on its general authority V 

Because a measure of such singular magnitude and delicacy ought 
not to be imposed without the clearest evidence that it is called for by 
a majority of citizens ; and no satisfactory method is yet proposed by 
which the voice of the majority, in this case, may be determined, or its 
influence secured. " The people of the respective counties," indeed, 
" are requested to signify their opinion respecting the adoption of the 
bill to the next session of the Assembly." But the representation 
must be made equal before the voice either of the representatives or 
of the counties will be that of the people. Our hope is that neither 
of the former will, after due consideration, espouse the dangerous prin- 
ciple of the bill. Should the event disappoint us, it will still leave us 
in full confidence that a fair appeal to the latter will reverse the sen- 
tence against our liberties. 

Because, finally, " the equal right of every citizen to the free exer- 
cise of his religion according to the dictates of conscience " is held by 
the same tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to its origin, it 
is equally the gift of Nature ; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be 
less dear to us ; if we consult the declaration of those rights " which 



640 LIFE AND TIMES OF MADISON. 

pertain to the good people of Virginia as the basis and foundation of 
government,"* it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather with 
studied emphasis. Either, then, we must say that the will of the legis- 
lature is the only measure of their authority, and that, in the plenitude 
of that authority, they may sweep away all our fundamental rights ; or 
that they are bound to leave this particular right untouched and sacred. 
Either we must say that they may control the freedom of the press, 
may abolish the trial by jury, may swallow up the executive and judi- 
ciary powers of the State, — nay, that they may despoil us of our very 
right of suffrage, and erect themselves into an independent and hered- 
itary assembly, — or we must say that they have no authority to enact 
into a law the bill under consideration. 

We, the subscribers, say that the General Assembly of this Common- 
wealth have no such authority ; and in order that no effort may be 
omitted on our part against so dangerous a usurpation, we oppose to it 
this remonstrance, earnestly praying, as we are in duty bound, that the 
Supreme Lawgiver of the Universe, by illuminating those to whom it is 
addressed, may, on the one hand, turn their councils from every act 
which would affront His holy prerogative or violate the trust committed 
to them, and, on the other, guide them into every measure which may 
be worthy of His blessing, redound to their own praise, and establish 
more firmly the liberties, the prosperity, and the happiness of the Com- 
monwealth. 

* BUI of Rights, preamble. 



APPENDIX. 



A. See page 35. 
MR. madison's theological catalogue for the library of 

THE UNIVERSITY. 

It was in 1824, when the University of Virginia was soon to be. 
opened, that Mr. Jefferson, the Rector, applied to Mr. Madison for hia 
aid in making out a catalogue of books on theology for the library. 
In a letter of the 8th of August, 1824, he says to Mr. Madison : " The 
chapter in which I am most at a loss is that of divinity ; and knowing 
that in your early days you bestowed attention on this subject, I wish 
you could suggest to me any works really worthy of a place in the cat- 
alogue. The good moral writers, Christian as well as pagan, I have 
set down ; but there are writers of celebrity in religious metaphysics, 
such as Duns Scotus et alii tales, whom you can suggest. Pray think 
of it, and help me." Mr. Madison answered on the lGth of the same 
month : " I will endeavour to make out a list of theological works, but 
am less qualified for the task than you seem to think, and fear also that 
my catalogues are less copious than might be wished. There is a diffi- 
culty in marking the proper limit to so inexhaustible a chapter, whether 
with a view to the library in its infant or more mature state." 

On the 3d of September, Mr. Jefferson wrote again to Mr. Madi- 
son : " I am near closing my catalogue, and it is important I should 
receive the kindness of your theological supplement by the first or 
second mail, or its insertion will be impracticable. Be so good as to 
expedite it as much as possible." On the 10th of the month, Mr. Mad- 
ison wrote the following answer, and accompanied it with the desired 

catalogue : — 

" Montpelier, September 10th, 1824. 

" Dear Sir : On the receipt of yours of August 8th, I turned my 

thoughts to its request on the subject of a theological catalogue for the 

54* 



642 APPENDIX. 

library of the University ; and not being aware that so early an answer 
was wished as I now find was the case, I had proceeded very leisurely 
in noting such authors as seemed proper for the catalogue. Supposing 
also that, although theology was not to be taught in the University, its 
library ousht to contain pretty full information for such as mieht vol- 
untarily seek it in that branch of learning, I had contemplated as much 
of a comprehensive and systematic selection as my scanty materials 
admitted, and had gone through the five first centuries of Christianity 
when yours of the 3d instant came to hand, which was the evening be- 
fore the last. This conveyed to me more distinctly the limited object 
your letter had in view, and relieved me from a task which I found 
extremely tedious, especially considering the intermixture of the doc- 
trinal and controversial part of divinity with the metaphysical and 
moral part, and the immense extent of the whole. 

" I send you the list I had made out, with an addition, on the same 
paper, of such books as a hasty glance at a few catalogues and my 
recollection suggested. Perhaps some of them may not have occurred 
to you, and may suit the blank you have not filled. I am sorry I could 
not make a fair copy without failing to comply with the time pointed 
out. 

" I find by a letter from Lafayette, in answer to a few lines I wrote 

him on his arrival at New York, that he means to see us before the 

19th of October, as you have probably learned from himself. His 

visit to the United States will make an annus mirabilis in the history 

of liberty. Affectionately yours, 

" James Madison. 
" Mr. Jefferson." 

The following is the catalogue enclosed : — 

Oentuky I. — Polyglott. Clement's Epistles to the Corinthians, published at 
Cambridge, 1788. 

Ignatius, Epistles. Amsterdam, 1607. 

Cotelier, Eecueil de Monumens des Peres dans les Temps apostoliques. 
Edit, par Le Clerc. Amsterdam, 1724. 

Flavius .Tosephus (in English, by Whiston). Amsterdam, 1726. 2 v. fol. 

Philo .Judseus (Greek and Latin). English Edition, 1742. 2 v. fol. 

Lucian's Works. Amsterdam, 1743. 3 v. 4to. 

Eabrieius Bibl. Grcec. Delectus, etc. See Mosheim, v. i. p. 106. 
Cknt. II. — Justin Martyr's Apology, etc. Ed. by Prudent Maran, Benedic- 
tine. 

Hermias. Oxford, 1700. 8vo. 

Athenagoras. Oxford, 1706. 8vo. # 

Clemens Alexandrinus. Ed. by Potter. Oxford, 1715. 2 v. fol. 



APPENDIX. 643 

Tertullian. Venice, 1746. 1 v. fol. 

Theophilus of Antioch (first adopted the term Trinity). 1742. 1 v. fol. 

Irenams. Ed. by Grabe. 1702. 1 v. fol, 

Tatian, against the Gentiles. Oxford, 1700. 8vo. 
Ammonias Saccas's Harmony of the Evangelists. 

Celsus translated par Bonhereau. Amsterdam, 1700. 4to. 
Cent. III. — Minutius Felix (translated by Reeves). Leyden, 1672. 8vo. 

Origen. Gr. and Lat. 4 v. fol. 

Cyprian (translated into French by Lambert). 1 v. fol. 

Gregory Thaumaturgus. Gr. and Lat. 1626. 1 v. fol. 

Arnobius Africanus. Amsterdam, 1651. 1 v. 4to. 

Anatolius. Antwerp, 1634. 1 v. fol. 

Methodius Eubulius. Rome, 1656. 8vo. 

Philostratus — Life of Apollonius Tyanaeus. Gr. and Lat., with notes 
by Godefroy Olearius. Leipsic. 
Cent. IV. — Lactantius. Edit, by Linglet. Paris, 1748. 2 v. 4to. 

Eusebius of Caesarea. 

Athanasius, par Montfaucon. 1698. 3 v. fol. 

Antonius, (founder of the monastic order,) Seven Letters, etc. Latin 

St. Cyril (of Jerusalem). Gr. and Lat. Paris, 1720. 1 v. fol. 

St. Hilary. Ed. by Maffei. Verona, 1730. 

Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari. Paris, 1568. 1 v. 8vo. 

Epiphanius. Gr. and Lat. Edit. Pere Petau. 1622. 2 v. fol. 

Optatus. Ed. by Dupin. 1700. fol. 

Pacianus. Paris, 1538. 4to. 

Basil (Bishop of Caesarea). Gr. and Lat. 1721. 3 v. fol. 

Gregory (of Nazianzen). Gr. and Lat. Paris, 1609. 2 v. fol. 

(of Nyssa). 1615. 2 v. fol. 

Ambrosius. Paris, 1690. 2 v. fol. 

Jerome. Paris, 1693-1706. 5 v. fol. 

Rufiuus. Paris, 1580. 1 v. fol. 

Augustin. 1679-1700. 8 v. fol. 

Chrysostom, John. Gr. and Lat. 10 v. fol. 

Ammianus Marcellinus. 

Julian's Works. 
Cent. V. — Sulpitius Severus. Verona, 1754. 2 v. 4to. 

Isidorus (of Pelusium). Paris, 1638. Gr. and Lat. 1 v. fol. 

Cyril (of Alexandria). Gr. and Lat. 6 v. fol. 

Orosius. Leyden, 1738. 4to. 

Theodoret. Edit, by Pere Simoud. Gr. and Lat. 6 v. fol. 

Philostorgius, by Godefroi. Gr. and Lat. 1642. 1 v. 4to. 

Vincentius Lirinensis. Rome. 4to. 

Sqcrates's Eccles. History. 

Sozomen's do. do. 

Leo (the Great), by Quesnel. Lyons, 1700. fol. 

jEneas (of Gaza). Greek, with Latin version by Barthiris. 1655. 4io. 



644 APPENDIX. 

Miscellaneous. Thomas Aquinas, (Doct, Angelious,) Head of the Thomists, 
12 v. fol. Duns Scotus, (Doctor Subtilis.) Head of the Scotists, 12 v. fol. 
The Koran. Cave's Lives of the Fathers. Daille's Use and Abuse of them. 
Erasmus. Luther. Calvin. Socinus. Bellarmin. Chillingworth. Coun- 
cil of Trent, by F. Paul; by Pallavicini; by Basnage. Grotius on Truth 
of Christian Religion. Sherlock's Sermons. Tillotson's Sermons. Tille- 
mont. Baronius. Lardner. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity. Pearson on the 
Creed. Burnet on Thirty-Nine Articles. Pascal's Lettres Provinciates ; 
Pens^es. Fenelon. Bossuet. Bourdaloue. Saurin. Flechier. Massillon. 
Warburton's Divine Legation. Hannah Adams's View of all Religions. 
Stackhouse's History of the Bible. Sir Isaac Newton's Works on Religious 
Subjects. Locke's ditto. Stillingfleet's Controversy with him on the Pos- 
sibility of endowing Matter with Thought. Clarke on the Being and Attri- 
butes of God ; his Sermons. Butler's Analogy. Eight Sermons at Boyle's 
Lecture, by Bentley. Whitby on the Five Points. Winston's Theological 
Works. Taylor's (Jeremy) Sermons. John Taylor (of Norwich) against 
Original Sin. Edwards, in answer; on Free Will; on Virtue. Soame Jen- 
yns's Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil. Liturgy for King's Chapel, 
Boston. Mather's Essays to do Good. Price on Morals. Wollaston's Re- 
ligion of Nature delineated. Barclay's Apology for Quakers. William 
Penn's Works. King's (William) Essay on Origin of Evil; notes by Law. 
Wesley on Original Sin. King's Inquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, 
etc., of the Church within the Three First Centuries. Priestley's and 
Horsley's Controversies. Historical View of Controversy on Intermediate 
State of the Soul, by Dean Blackburne. The Confessional, by the same. 
Jones's Method of settling the Canonical Scriptures of New Testament. 
Leibnitz on Goodness of God, Liberty of Man, and Origin of Evil. Paley's 
Works. Warburton's Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion. Blair's 
Sermons. Buckminster's (of Boston) Sermons. Necker's Importance of 
Religion. Latrobe's (Benjamin) Doctrine of the Moravians. Ray's Wis- 
dom of God in the Creation. Durham's Astro-theology. Bibliotheca Fra- 
trum Polonoram, 9 v. fol. 



B. See pp. 137-146. 

SUCCESSIVE DRAUGHTS OP VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 

Original Draught of George Mason. Draught reported by Committee.* 

A Declaration of Rights made by the A Declaration of Rights made by the 

Representatives of the good people Representatives of the good .people 

of Virginia, assembled in full and of Virginia, assembled in full and 

free convention, which rights do per- free convention, which rights do 

* We have marked in Italics, in order to indicate them the more readily to the reader, 
the verbal variations of this draught from that of Colonel Mason. 



APPENDIX. 



645 



tain to them and their posterity, as 
the basis and foundation of govern- 
ment. 

1. That all men are created equally 
free and independent, and have certain 
inherent natural rights, of which they 
cannot, by any compact, deprive or di- 
vest their posterity; among which are 
the enjoyment of life and liberty, with 
the means of acquiring and possessing 
property, and pursuing and obtaining 
happiness and safety. 

2. That all power is by God and 
Nature vested in, and consequently de- 
rived from, the people; that magis- 
trates are their trustees and servants, 
and at all times amenable to them. 

3. That government is, or ought to 
be, instituted for the common benefit, 
protection, and security of the people, 
nation, or community. Of all the va- 
rious modes and forms of government, 
that is best which is capable of pro- 
ducing the greatest degree of happi- 
ness and safety, and is most effectually 
secured against the danger of malad- 
ministration; and that whenever any 
government shall be found inadequate 
or contrary to these purposes, a major- 
ity of the community hath an indubita- 
ble, unalienable, and indefeasible right 
to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such 
manner as shall be judged most con- 
ducive to the public weal. 

4. That no man, or set of men, are 
entitled to exclusive or separate emol- 
uments or privileges from the commu- 
nity, but in consideration of public 
services; which not being descendi- 
ble, neither ought the offices of magis- 
trate, legislator, or judge to be heredi- 
tary. 

5. That the legislative and executive 
powers of the State should be separate 
and distinct from the judicial; and 
that the members of the two first may 
be restrained from oppression by feel- 
ing and participating the burthens of 
the people, they should, at fixed peri- 



pertain to us and our posterity, a9 
the basis and foundation of govern- 
ment. 

1. That all men are born equally free 
and independent, and have certain in- 
herent natural rights, of which they 
cannot, by any compact, deprive then- 
posterity; among which arc the en- 
joyment of life and liberty, with the 
means of acquiring and possessing 
property, and pursuing and obtaining 
happiness and safety. 

2. [The same as the original draught 
of George Mason, except that the 
clause " by God and Nature " is 
stricken out.] 

3. [The same in all respects.] 



4. That no man, or set of men, are 
entitled to exclusive or separate emol- 
uments or privileges from the commu- 
nity, but in consideration of public 
services; which not being descendible 
or hereditary, the idea of a man born a 
magistrate, a legislator, or a judge is 
unnatural and absurd. 

5. [The same, except that the word 
judicative is substituted for "judicial," 
and the conjunction " and," after the 
words " private station," is stricken 
out.] 



646 



APPENDIX. 



ods, be reduced to a private station, 
and return into that body from which 
they were originally taken, and the va- 
cancies be supplied by frequent, cer- 
tain, and regular elections. 

6. That elections of members to 
serve as representatives of the people 
in the legislature ought to be free, and 
that all men, having sufficient evidence 
of permanent common interest with 
and attachment to the community, 
have the right of suffrage, and cannot 
be taxed, or deprived of their property 
for public uses, without their own con- 
sent, or that of their representatives so 
elected, nor bound by any law to which 
they have not, in like manner, assented 
for the common good. 

7. That all power of suspending laws, 
or the execution of laws, by any au- 
thority, without consent of the repre- 
sentatives of the people, is injurious to 
their rights, and ought not to be exer- 
cised. 



8. That in all capital or criminal 
prosecutions, a man hath a right to de- 
mand the cause and nature of his ac- 
cusation, to be confronted with the 
accusers and witnesses, to call for evi- 
dence in his favor, and to a speedy trial 
by an impartial jury of his vicinage, 
without whose unanimous consent he 
cannot be found guilty, nor can he be 
compelled to give evidence against him- 
self; and that no man be deprived of 
his liberty, except by the law of the 
land or the judgment of his peers. 

9. That excessive bail ought not to 
be required, nor excessive fines im- 
posed, nor cruel and unusual punish- 
ments inflicted. 



6. That elections of members to 
serve as representatives of the people 
in Assembly ought to be free, and that 
all men, having sufficient evidence of 
permanent common interest with and 
attachment to the community, have 
the right of suffrage. 

7. That no part of a mail's property 
com be taken from him or ajiplied to 
public uses without his own consent or 
that of his legal representatives; nor 
are the people bound by any laws but 
such as they have, in like manner, as- 
sented to for their common good. 

8. [The same.] 



9. That laws having retrospect to 
crimes, and punishing offences com- 
mitted before the existence of such 
laws, are generally oppressive, and 
ought to be avoided. 

10. [The same, with the single ex- 
ception of the disjunctive or being sub- 
stituted for "and" between the words 
"accusers" and "witnesses."] 



11. [The same.] 



12. That warrants, unsupported by 
evidence, whereby any officer or mes- 
senger may be commanded or required 
to search suspected places, or to seize 
any person or persons, his or their 



APPENDIX. 



647 



property, not particularly described, 
sire grievous and oppressive, mid ought 
not to be granted. 
13. [The same.] 



14. [The same.] 



15. [The same.] 



10. That in controversies respecting 
property, and in suits between man 
and man, the ancient trial by jury is 
preferable to any other, and ought to 
be held sacred. 

11. That the freedom of the Press is 
one of the great bulwarks of liberty, 
and can never be restrained but by 
despotic governments. 

12. That a well regulated militia, 
composed of the body of the people, 
trained to arms, is the proper, natural, 
and safe defence of a free State; that 
standing armies in time of peace should 
be avoided, as dangerous to liberty ; 
and that, in all cases, the military 
should be under strict subordination 
to, and governed by, the civil power. 

16. That the people have a right to 
uniform government; and, therefore, 
that no government separate from, or 
independent of, the government of Vir- 
ginia, ought, of right, to be erected or 
established within the limits thereof. 

13. That no free government, or the 17. [The same.] 
blessing of liberty, can be preserved 

to any people but by a firm adherence 
to justice, moderation, temperance, 
frugality, and virtue, and by frequent 
recurrence to fundamental principles. 

14. That religion, or the duty which 
we owe to our Creator, and the man- 
ner of discharging it, can be directed 
only by reason and conviction, not by 
force or violence; and, therefore, that 
all men should enjoy the fullest tolera- 
tion in the exercise of religion, ac- 
cording to the dictates of conscience, 
unpunished and unrestrained by the 
magistrate, unless, under color of re- 
ligion, any man disturb the peace, the 
happiness, or the safety of society. 
And that it is the mutual duty of all 
to practise Christian forbearance, love, 
and charity towards each other. 

It will be seen, upon a comparison of the preceding draughts, that the 
committee added three entirely new articles (Nos. 9, 12, and 16) to the 



18. [The same.] 



648 



APPENDIX. 



original draught of Colonel Mason, and subdivided one of his articles 
■ (No. 6) into two, thereby making eighteen articles of their draught for 
the fourteen of his. In the Declaration, as finally adopted, the con- 
vention incorporated two of the additional articles reported by the 
committee, and restored the unity of the 6th article of Colonel Mason's 
draught ; so that the Declaration, in its ultimate form, consisted of six- 
teen articles. It is not deemed necessary to insert it here as it was 
finally adopted, and as it now stands at the head of the present consti- 
tution, and has unchangeably stood at the head of all the successive 
constitutions of Virginia. With the exception of the two added arti- 
cles mentioned above, a brief additional clause at the end of the 5th 
article, and the amendment of the last article made on the motion of 
Mr. Madison, it is, in every essential particular, identical with the 
draught of Colonel Mason. 



C. See pp. 149-152, and 158-165. 



PARALLEL BETWEEN THE FIRST DRAUGHT OF THE VIRGINIA CON- 
STITUTION OF 1776 AND THE FORM IN WHICH IT WAS FINALLY 
ADOPTED. 

First Draught of Constitution, or Plan Constitution as agreed to and adopted by 
of Government, laid before Select Com- the Convention, 

mittee. 



1. Let the legislative, executive, and 
judicative departments be separate and 
distinct, so that neither exercise the 
powers properly belonging to the other. 



2. Let the legislative be formed of 
two distinct branches, who together 
*hall be a complete legislature. They 
shall meet once, or oftener, every year, 
and shall be called the General Assem- 
bly of Virginia. 

3. Let one of these be called the 
Lower House of Assembly, and consist 
of two delegates or representatives, 
chosen for each county annually, by 
such men as have resided in the same 
for a year last past, are freeholders of 



1. The legislative, executive, and ju- 
diciary departments shall be separate 
and distinct, so that neither exercise 
the powers properly belonging to the 
other; nor shall any person exercise 
the powers of more than one of them 
at the same time, except that the jus- 
tices of the county courts shall be eligi- 
ble to either House of the Assemblv. 

2. The legislature shall be formed 
of two distinct branches, who together 
sh:ill be a complete legislature. They 
shall meet once, or oftener, every year, 
and shall be called the General Assem- 
bly of Virginia. 

3. One of these shall be called the 
House of Delegates, and consist of two 
representatives to be chosen for each 
county, and for the district of West 
Augusta, annually, of such men as ac- 
tually reside in and are freeholders of 



APPENDIX. 



649 



the county, possess an estate of inher- 
itance of land in Virginia of at least 
one thousand pounds value, and are 
upwards of twenty-four years of age. 



4. Let the other be.called the Upper 
House of Assembly, and consist of 
twenty-four members ; for whose elec- 
tion, let the different counties be di- 
vided into twenty-four districts, and 
each county of the respective district, 
at the time of the election of its dele- 
gates for the Lower House, choose 
twelve deputies or sub-electors, being 
freeholders residing therein, and hav- 
ing an estate of inheritance of lands 
within the district of at least five hun- 
dred pounds value. In case of dispute, 
the qualifications to be determined by 
the majority of the said deputies. Let 
these deputies choose, by ballot, one 
member of the Upper House of Assem- 
bly, who is a freeholder of the district, 
hath been a resident therein for one 
year last past, possesses an estate of 
inheritance in lands in Virginia of at 
least two thousand pounds value, and 
is upwards of twenty-eight years of 
age. To keep up this assembly by 
rotation, let the districts be equally di- 
vided into four classes, and numbered. 
At the end of oue year after the gen- 
eral election, let the six members 
elected by the first division be dis- 
placed, rendered ineligible for four 
years, and the vacancies be supplied 
in the manner aforesaid. Let this ro- 
tation be applied to each division ac- 
vol. I. 55 



the same, or duly qualified according 
to law, and also one delegate or repre 
sentative to be chosen annually for the 
city of Williamsburg, and one for the 
borough of Norfolk, and a representa- 
tive for each of such other cities and 
boroughs as may hereafter be allowed 
particular representation by the legis- 
lature; but when any city or borough 
shall so decrease as that the number 
of persons having right of suffrage 
therein shall have been, for the space 
of seven years successively, less than 
half the number of voters in some one 
county in Virginia, such city or bor- 
ough thenceforward shall cease to send 
a delegate or representative to the As- 
sembly. 

4. The other shall be called the Sen- 
ate, and consist of twenty-four mem- 
bers, of whom thirteen shall constitute 
a House to proceed on business; for 
whose election the different counties 
shall be divided into twenty-four dis- 
tricts, and each county of the respec- 
tive districts, at the time of the election 
of its delegates, shall vote for one sen- 
ator, who is actually a resident and 
freeholder within the district, or duly 
qualified according to law, and is up- 
wards of twenty-five years of age ; and 
the sheriff's of each county, within five 
days at farthest after the last county 
election in the district, shall meet at 
some convenient place, and, from the 
poll so taken in their respective coun- 
ties, return as a senator the man who 
shall have the greatest number of votes 
in the whole district. To keep up this 
assembly by rotation, the districts shall 
be equally divided into four classes, 
and numbered by lot. At the end of 
one year after the general election, the 
six members elected by the first divis- 
ion shall be displaced, and the vacan- 
cies thereby occasioned supplied from 
such class or division by new election 
in the manner aforesaid. This rota- 
tion shall be applied to each division 
according to its number, and continued 
in due order annually. 



650 



APPENDIX. 



cording to its number, and continued 
in due order annually. 

6. Let each House settle its own 
rules of proceeding, direct writs of 
election for supplying intermediate va- 
cancies; and let the right of suffrage, 
both in the election of members of the 
Lower House and of deputies for the 
districts, be extended to those having 
leases for land in which there is an un- 
expired term of seven years, and to 
every housekeeper who hath resided 
for one year last past in the county, 
and hath been the father of three chil- 
dren in this country. 

6. Let all laws originate in the Lower 
House, to be approved or rejected by 
the Upper House, or to be amended 
with the consent of the Lower House, 
except money bills, which in no in- 
stance shall be altered by the Upper 
House, but wholly approved or rejected. 

7. Let a governor or chief magis- 
trate be chosen annually by joint bal- 
lot of both Houses, who shall not 
continue in that office longer than 
three years successively, and then be 
ineligible for the next three years. Let 
an adequate, but moderate salary be 
settled on him, during his continuance 
in office; and let him, with the advice 
of a council of state, exercise the ex- 
ecutive powers of government, and the 
power of proroguing or adjourning the 
General Assembly, or of calling it upon 
emergencies, and of granting reprieves 
or pardons, except in cases where the 
prosecution shall have been carried on 
by the Lower House of Assembly. 



5. The right of suffrage in tne elec- 
tion of members for both Houses shall 
remain as exercised at present; and 
each House shall choose its own speak- 
er, appoint its own officers, settle its 
own rules of proceeding, and direct 
writs of election for supplying inter- 
mediate vacancies. 



6. All laws shall originate in the 
House of Delegates, to be approved or 
rejected by the Senate, or to be amend- 
ed with the consent of the House of 
Delegates; except money bills, which, 
in no instance, shall be altered by the 
Senate, but wholly approved or re- 
jected. 

7. A governor or chief magistrate 
shall be chosen annually by joint bal- 
lot of both Houses, to be taken in each 
House respectively, deposited in the 
conference-room, the boxes examined 
jointly by a committee of each House, 
and the numbers severally reported to 
them that the appointments may be 
entered, (which shall be the mode of 
taking the joint ballot of both Houses 
in all cases,) who shall not continue in 
that office longer than three years suc- 
cessively, nor be eligible until the ex- 
piration of four years after he shall 
have been out of that office. An ade- 
quate, but moderate salary shall be set- 
tled on him during his continuance in 
office; and he shall, with the advice of 
a council of state, exercise the execu- 
tive powers of government, according 
to the laws of this Commonwealth; 
and shall not, under any pretence, ex- 
ercise any power or prerogative by 
virtue of any law, statute, or custom 
of England; but he shall, with the ad- 
vice of the council of state, have the 
power of granting reprieves or pardons, 
except where the prosecution shall 



APPENDIX. 



651 



8. Let a privy council, or council of 
state, consisting of eight members, be 
chosen by joint ballot of both Houses 
of Assembly, promiscuously from their 
own members or the people at large, to 
assist in the administration of govern- 
ment. Let the governor be president 
of this council; but let them annually 
choose one of their own members as 
vice-president, who, in case of the death 
or absence of the governor, shall act as 
lieutenant-governor. Let three mem- 
bers be sufficient to act, and their 
advice be entered of record in their 
proceedings. Let them appoint their 
own clerk, who shall have a salary set- 
tled by law, and take an oath of secrecy 
in such matters as he shall be directed 
by the board to conceal, unless called 
upon by the Lower House of Assembly 
for information. Let a sum of money, 
appropriated to that purpose, be di- 
vided annually among the members, in 
proportion to their attendance; and let 
them be incapable, during their con- 
tinuance in office, of sitting in either 
House of Assembly. Let two mem- 
bers be removed, by ballot of their own 
board, at the end of every three years, 
and be ineligible for the three next 
years. Let this be regularly contin- 
ued, by rotation, so as that no member 
be removed before he hath been three 
years in the council; and let these va- 
cancies, as well as those occasioned by 



have been carried on by the House of 
Delegates, or the law shall otherwise 
particularly direct; in which cases, no 
reprieve or pardon shall be granted but 
by resolve of the House of Delegates. 

Either House of the General Assem- 
bly may adjourn themselves respec- 
tively. The governor shall not prorogue 
or adjourn the Assembly during their 
sitting, nor dissolve them at any time; 
but he shall, if necessary, either by 
advice of the council of state, or on 
application of a majority of the House 
of Delegates, call them before the time 
to which they stand prorogued or ad- 
journed. 

8. A privy council, or council of 
state, consisting of eight members, 
shall be chosen by joint ballot of both 
Houses of Assembly, either from their 
own members or the people at large, to 
assist in the administration of govern- 
ment. They shall annually choose out 
of their own members a president, who, 
in case of the death, inability, or ne- 
cessary absence of the governor from 
the government, shall act as lieutenant- 
governor. Four members shall be suf- 
ficient to act, and their advice and 
proceedings shall be entered of record, 
and signed by the members present, 
(to any part whereof any member may 
enter his dissent,) to be laid before the 
General Assembly, when called for by 
them. This council may appoint their 
own clerk, who shall have a salary 
settled by law, and take an oath of se- 
crecy in such matters as he shall be 
directed by the board to conceal. A 
sum of money, appropriated to that 
purpose, shall be divided annually 
among the members, in proportion to 
their attendance; and they shall be in- 
capable, during their continuance in 
office, of sitting in either House of As- 
sembly. Two members shall be re- 
moved by joint ballot of both Houses 
of Assembly at the end of every three 
years, and be ineligible for the three 
next years. These vacancies, as well 
as those occasioned by death or inca- 



652 



APPENDIX. 



death or incapacity, be supplied by 
new elections, in the same manner as 
the first. 



9. Let the governor, with the advice 
of the privy council, have the appoint- 
ment of the militia officers, and the 
government of the militia, under the 
laws of the country. 



10. Let the two Houses of Assembly, 
by joint ballot, appoint judges of the 
supreme court, judges in chancery, 
judges of admiralty, and the attorney- 
general, — to be commissioned by the 
governor, and continue in office during 
good behaviour. In case of death or 
incapacity, let the governor, with the 
advice of the privy council, appoint 
persons to succeed in office pro tem- 
pore, to be approved or displaced by 
both Houses. Let these officers have 
fixed and adequate salaries, and be 
incapable of having a seat in either 
House of Assembly, or in the privy 
council, except the attorney-general 
and the treasurer, who maybe permit- 
ted to a seat in the Lower House of 
Assembly. 

11. Let the governor and privy coun- 
cil appoint justices of the peace for 
the counties. Let the clerks of all the 
courts, the sheriffs, and coroners be 
nominated by the respective courts, 
approved by the governor and privy 
council, and commissioned by the gov- 
ernor. Let the clerks be continued 



pacity, shall be supplied by new elec- 
tions in the same manner. 

The delegates for Virginia to the 
Continental Congress shall be chosen 
annually, or superseded in the mean 
time, by joint ballot of both Houses of 
Assembly. 

9. The present militia officers shall 
be continued, and vacancies supplied 
by appointment of the governor, with 
the advice of the privy council, on 
recommendation from the respective 
county courts; but the governor and 
council shall have a power of suspend- 
ing any officer, and ordering a court 
martial on complaint of misbehaviour 
or inability, or to supply vacancies of 
officers happening when in actual ser- 
vice. The governor may embody the 
militia, with the advice of the privy 
council, and, when embodied, shall 
alone have the direction of the militia 
under the laws of the country. 

10. The two Houses of Assembly 
shall, by joint ballot, appoint judges 
of the supreme court of appeals and 
general court, judges in chancery, 
judges of admiralty, secretary, and 
the attorney-general, — to be commis- 
sioned by the governor, and continue 
in office during good behaviour. In 
case of death, incapacity, or resigna- 
tion, the governor, with the advice of 
the privy council, shall appoint persons 
to succeed in office, to be approved or 
displaced by both Houses. These offi- 
cers shall have fixed and adequate 
salaries, and, together with all others 
holding lucrative offices, and all minis- 
ters of the gospel of every denomi- 
nation, be incapable of being elected 
members of either House of Assembly, 
or the privy council. 

11. The governor, with the advice 
of the privy council, shall appoint jus- 
tices of the peace for the counties; 
and in case of vacancies, or a neces- 
sity of increasing the number hereaf- 
ter, such appointments to be made 
upon the recommendation of the re- 
spective county courts. The present 



APPENDIX. 



653 



during good behaviour, and all fees be 
regulated by law. Let the justices 
appoint constables. 



12. Let the governor, any of the 
privy councillors, judges of the su- 
preme court, and all other officers of 
government, for mal-administration, or 
corruption, be prosecuted by the Lower 
House of Assembly, (to be carried on 
by the attorney-general, or such other 
person as the House may appoint,) in 
the supreme court of common law. 
If found guilty, let him or them be 
either removed from office, or forever 
disabled to hold any office under the 
government, or subjected to such pains 
or penalties as the laws shall direct. 



13. Let all commissions run in the 
name of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 
and be tested by the governor, with 
the seal of the Commonwealth an- 
nexed. Let writs run in the same 
manner, and be tested by the clerks of 

55* 



acting secretary in Virginia, and clerks 
of all the county courts, shall continue 
in office. In case of vacancies, either 
by death, incapacity, or resignation, a 
secretary shall be appointed as before 
directed, and the clerks by the respec- 
tive courts. The present and future 
clerks shall hold their offices during 
good behaviour, to be judged of and 
determined in the general court. The 
sheriffs and coroners shall be nomi- 
nated by the respective courts, ap- 
proved by the governor with the advice 
of the privy council, and commissioned 
by the governor. The justices shall 
appoint constables, and all fees of the 
aforesaid officers be regulated by law. 

12. The governor, when he is out of 
office, and others offending against the 
State, either by mal-administration, 
corruption, or other means by which 
the safety of the State may be endan- 
gered, shall be impeachable by the 
House of Delegates. Such impeach- 
ment to be prosecuted by the attorney- 
general, or such other person or persons 
as the House may appoint, in the gen- 
eral court, according to the laws of the 
land. If found guilty, he or they shall 
either be forever disabled to hold any 
office under government, or removed 
from such office pro tempore, or sub- 
jected to such pains or penalties as 
the law may direct. — If all or any of 
the judges of the general court shall, 
on good grounds, (to be judged of by 
the House of Delegates,) be accused of 
any of the crimes or offences before 
mentioned, such House of Delegates 
may, in like manner, impeach the 
judge or judges so accused, to be pros- 
ecuted in the court of appeals ; and he 
or they, if found guilty, shall be pun- 
ished in the same manner as is pre- 
scribed in the preceding clause. 

13. Commissions and grants shall 
run, In the name of the Commonwealth 
of Virginia, and bear test by the gov- 
ernor, with the seal of the Common- 
wealth annexed. Writs shall run in 
the same manner, and bear test by the 



654 



APPENDIX. 



the several courts. Let indictments 
conclude, Against the peace and dignity 
of the Commonwealth. 

14. Let a treasurer be appointed an- 
nually, by joint ballot of both Houses. 



15. In order to introduce this gov- 
ernment, let the representatives of the 
people, now met in convention, choose 
twenty-four members to be an Upper 
House; and let both Houses, by joint 
ballot, choose a governor and privy 
council; the Upper House to continue 
until the last day of March next, and 



clerks of the several courts. Indict- 
ments shall conclude, Against the peace 
and dignity of the Commonwealth. 

14. A treasurer shall be appointed an- 
nually, by joint ballot of both Houses. 

All escheats, penalties, and forfeit- 
ures, heretofore going to the King, shall 
go to the Commonwealth, save only 
such as the legislature may abolish, or 
otherwise provide for. 

The territories contained within the 
charters erecting the Colonies of Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, North and South 
Carolina, are hereby ceded, released, 
and forever confirmed to the people of 
those Colonies respectively, with all 
the rights of property, jurisdiction, 
and government, and all other rights 
whatsoever, which might at any time 
heretofore have been claimed by Vir- 
ginia, except the free navigation and 
use of the rivers Potomac and Poho- 
moke, with the property of the Virginia 
shores or strands bordering on either 
of the said rivers, and all improve- 
ments which have been or shall be 
made thereon. The western and north- 
ern extent of Virginia shall, in all other 
respects, stand as fixed by the charter 
of King James the First, in the year 
one thousand six hundred and nine, 
and by the public treaty of peace be- 
tween the courts of Great Britain and 
France in the year one thousand seven 
hundred and sixty-three; unless, by 
act of legislature, one or more terri- 
tories shall hereafter be laid off, and 
governments established westward of 
the Alleghany Mountains. And no 
purchase of lands shall be made of the 
Indian natives but on behalf of the 
public, by authority of the General 
Assembly. 

15. In order to introduce this gov- 
ernment, the representatives of the 
people, met in convention, shall choose 
a governor and privy council; also 
such other officers directed to be chos- 
en by both Houses as may be judged 
necessary to be immediately appointed. 
The Senate to be first chosen by the 



APPENDIX. 655 

the other officers until the end of the people, to continue until the last day 
succeeding session of Assembly. In of March next, and the other officers 
cases of vacancies, the president to is- until the end of the succeeding session 
sue writs for new elections. of Assembly. In case of vacancies, 

the speaker of either House shall issue 
writs for new elections. 



D. Sec p. 360. 

MONSIEUR RAYNEVAL'S LETTER TO MR. MONROE, VINDICATING 
THE CONDUCT OF FRANCE IN THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE 
IN 1782. 

Paris, le 14 Novembre, 1795. 

Monsieur : J'ai re^u la lettre que vous ni'avez fait l'honneur de 
m'ecrire le 30 du mois dernier. Je suis, on ne peut pas plus, flatte de 
la marque de confiance que vous voulez blen me donner ; et je crois 
ne pouvoir y mieux repondre qu'en vous transmettant, avec la plus 
sorupuleuse exactitude, les explications que vous me demandez. Je 
suis d'autant plus en mesure de vous satisfairc, que les faits, dont il est 
question, me sont en quelque sorte personnels; et je le dois, puisque 
le ministere, avec qui je les ai partages, n'existe plus. D'ailleurs, e'est 
une dette que je m'empresse d'acquitter envers ma patrie, qu'on a 
cherehe a calomnier, avec une intention qu'il n'est pas difficile de pe- 
netrer. 

Votre lettre, Monsieur, renferme le passage suivant : " Vous savez 
que les ministres Americains ont signe avec ceux de l'Angleterre un 
traite provisoire, a l'inscu du cabinet Francais, et contre les instruc- 
tions qu'ils avaient du Congres, lequel traite ne devait pas avoir son 
etfet, jusqu'a ce qu'il fut conclu un traite entre la France et l'Angle- 
terre. Comme on cherchait a s'informer des motifs de cette demarche, 
il etait dit, d'apres ce que j'ai souvent entendu, que la France, temoi- 
gnant de l'indifference sur plusieurs points de nos reclamations, vis-a- 
vis l'Angleterre, debattus pour lors par nos ministres, avait meme pris le 
parti de cette puissance contre nous, en cherchant a ecarter nos recla- 
mations relatives a la peche, aux limites, et au Mississippi ; et qu'elle 
vous avait envoye en Angleterre expressement pour decider le Marquis 
de Lansdowne dans son opposition a nos demandes sur ces points, de la- 
quelle mission vous vous etes acquitte dans les conferences personnelles 
que vous avez eu avec ce ministre ; et qu'enfin, si nos negociateurs ont 
reussi sur les points que je viens de nommer, ils devaient leur succes a 



656 



APPENDIX. 



la politique liberale de l'Angleterre, — qui, en rejettant les conseils de 
la France, a prcfere nous accorder nos demandes, tandis-qu'instruite 
qu'elle etait des voeux de la France, a. cet egard, elle aurait pu s'y 
refuser, — et a leur propre adresse a decouvrir et a dejouer les intrigues 
du eouvernement Francais, en terminant le traite de la maniere etaux 
conditions deja eitees." 

Voila, Monsieur, les faits sur lesquels vous me demandez des eclair- 
cissements, et voici ma reponse : — 

Vous vous rappelez surement, Monsieur, qu'au combat naval qui eut 
lieu en Avril, 1782, dans les Antilles a la hauteur de la Dominique, 
M. De Grasse, fait prisonnier, fut conduit en Angleterre. Cet amiral 
eut des entretiens avec Milord Shelburne, et a son retour en France 
en Septembre, 1782, il fit entendre que ce ministre lui avait fait des 
overtures de paix : il remit meme une note des conditions qu'il disait 
lui avoir etc proposees. Cette annonce causa beaucoup d'etonne- 
ment; et Ton n 'etait pas sans defiance sur l'exactitude du rapport. 
Toutefois, on jugea devoir eclaircir les faits ; et on se determina a m'en- 
vover pour cet effet secretement en Angleterre. Mes instructions 
etaient aussi simples que laconiques: elles portaient que je devais de- 
mander l'aveu on le desaveu de la note remise par M. De Grasse. 

Le premier article de cette note coneernait l'independance de 
l'Amerique. Je joins ici un extrait du rapport que je fis lors de mon 
retour. II renferme textuellement ce que s'est dit a l'egard des affaires 
Americaines: il est de la fin du mois de Septembre, 1782. Vous y 
trouverez : 1°- que l'article fondamental de mes instructions etait l'in- 
dependance des Etats-Unis, et qu'il ne m'a rien ete prescrit relativement 
aux autres conditions a convenir avec les commissaires Americains ; 2 U - 
que je n'ai provoque aucune conversation, aucune discussion sur cet 
objet, et que lorsque le ministre Anglais en a parle de lui-meme, je me 
suis renferme dans mon ignorance et dans mon defaut d'autorisation ; 
3°- que dans les opinions que j'ai enonces, j'ai plutot apptiye qu'affaibli 
les demandes des commissaires Americains. Je crois devoir observer 
que le langage que j'ai tenu a l'egard des affaires Americaines, je l'ai 
tenu egalement a l'egard de celles de l'Espagne, parceque j'etais de 
meme sans autorisation de la part de cette puissance. 

Apres mon retour en France, les negotiations reprirent toute leur 
activite pour ce qui coneernait la France. Je joins ici l'extrait des 
pieces concernant la peche de la Terre Neuve. Vous ne verrez, Mon- 
sieur, pas un mot qui ait le moindre rapport aux interets des Etats- 
Unis. Pour la parfaite intelligence de ces pieces, je crois devoir vous 
donner l'explication suivante. 



APPENDIX. 657 

Par le traite d'Utrecht, (1713,) la France cdda l'islfi de Terre Ncuve 
l'Angleterre, mais elle se reserva la peche ; et cette disposition fut 
confirmee par les traites d'Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) et de Paris (1763). 
Nous avons constamment regarde notre droit de peche commc exclusif, 
dans les parages qui nous etaient assignes ; et nous avons porte des 
plaintes chaque ibis que les pechcurs Anglais venaient en concurrence 
avec les notres. De la naissaient sans cesse des discussions, des de- 
meles, et des querelles entre les deux nations. Nos reclamations etaient 
frcquentes, et elles etaient toujours infructueuses. Nous avons cru d 
voir profiter des circonstances de la guerre de 1778 pour tranche/ la 
difficult^. Nous avons, des le commencement des negociations, articule 
d'une maniere precise notre droit exclusif, et la volonte peremptoirc 
de la maintenir. 

Mais sentant la difficulte d'eloigner les Anglais de la partie la plus 
poissonneuse, — savoir, celle situee entre le Cap St. Jean et le Cap 
Buonavista, — et prevoyant que ce seul article rendrait les negociations 
infructueuses, nous consentimes a un nouveau partage. Nous deman- 
dSmes la peche exclusive depuis le Cap St. Jean jusq'au Cap Ray ; et 
e'est ainsi que les choses furent arrangees. Je dois observer ici que les 
cotes, qui nous ont ete assignees, sont les moins poissonneuses de toute 
l'Amerique ; et que, si nous nous en sommes contente's, c'a ete unique- 
ment par amour pour la paix et dans la vue de la rendre solide et du- 
rable, en prevenant le melange, et par la les querelles, des pecheurs 
des deux nations. 

Je reviens a mon sujet. Tandis-que notre negotiation cheminait. 
celle de l'Espagne presentait les plus grandes difficultes ; et le Roi ne 
voulant point faire sa paix separement, il pensa qu'il etait instant de 
concilier les interets de son allie. C'est dans cette vue que j'ai ete 
envoye, une seconde fois, en Angleterre a la demande du Comte 
dAranda. Mes instructions portaient, entre autres, le passage sui- 
vant : " Comme il est possible que les ministres Anglais entretiennent 
le S r de Rayneval des affaires de l'Amerique, et de celles d2S Pro- 
vinces Unis, il annoncera qu'il n'a aucune autorisation pour les traiter." 
Au reste, il m'importe ici de suivre les dates. Mes instructions por- 
tent celle du 15 Novembre, 1782. J'arrivai a Londres le 20 au soir. 
J'avais rencontre a Calais un sous-Secretaire d'Etat Anglais, charge 
d'instructions pour M. Oswald. Le traite provisoire entre ce plenipo- 
tentiaire et ceux des Etats-Unis fut signe le 30 du nieme mois de 
Novembre. Je n'appris cet evenement inopine que par le ministere 
Anglais ; et je joins ici le compte que j'en rendis le 4 Decembre. 
Tandis-que je transmettais cette information a M. de Vergennes, oe 



658 APPENDIX. 

ministre m'ecrivait, tie son cote, sur le ni^me objet, une lettre partieu- 
liere, et ensuite une lettre officielle, dont je joins egalement l'extrait. 
Vous remarquerez dans la premiere ces mots : " Vous ne vous doutiez 
pas, lorsque vous etes parti, que la negociation des Americains tut a 
son terme. Je ne fus informe que le lendemain, que les articles etaient 
convenus, et seraient signes le meme jour." 

Voici, Monsieur, l'explication de cette phrase. Arrive a Londres le 
20 Novembre, comme je le dis plus haut, je ne tardai pas a entrer en 
conference avec les ministres Anglais sur les affaires de l'Espagne. 
Mais les difficultes que je rencontrai me parurent si graves et si eom- 
pliquees, que je me determinai a revenir a Versailles pour expliquer 
I'etat des choses, et demander d'ulterieures instructions. J'arrivai a 
Versailles le 28 Novembre. Je passai la journee avec le Comte 
d'Aranda. Je repartis le 29 pour Londres, ou je fus de retour le 3 
Decembre. 

En venant, j'avais recu a boi'd de mon paquebot M. Laurens, qui 
venait a Paris. Pendant toute la traversee, ce commissaire Americain 
se tint sur la plus grande reserve vis-a-vis de moi. Mon retour a 
Londres etait d'autant plus instant qu'on attendait pour decider si le 
Roi d'Angleterre, a la rentree du parlement, annoncerait des espe- 
rances de paix, ou la necessite de continuer la guerre. C'est le lende- 
main de mon retour qu'arriva la nouvelle de la signature du traite 
Americain ; et c'est le lendemain de mon depart de Versailles qu'elle a 
eu lieu. 

Je ne dois pas omettre de vous dire, Monsieur, que Milord Lans- 
downe, chez qui j'etais a l'instant ou il apprit cette signature, me dit 
que c'etait un incident qu'il ne concevait pas, et qu'il n'aurait des 
idees nettes a cet egard, qu'apres la lecture des depeches. Je re- 
vis le premier ministre le lendemain, et il me dit que le traite, dont il 
s'agit, avait fait la plus vive sensation sur le conseil ; qu'il avait re- 
tourne les esprits ; que les dispositions actuelles etaient pour la contin- 
uation de la guerre, et une coalition avec les Americains ; que c'etait 
la le sentiment de tous les membres du conseil, a l'exception de lui et 
de Milord Grantham ; et que ce sentiment serait, sans doute, etaye par 
tous les ennemis du ministere : que, toutefois, il serait fidele a ses prin- 
cipes. II m'assura, de plus, que la signature precipitee faite a son inscu, 
et surtout les conditions exagerees etaient Feffet d'une intrigue, qui 
avait la continuation de la guerre pour objet ; mais qu'il etait force de 
dissimuler. 

Je pense, Monsieur, que tous ces details sont plus que suffisants pour 
vous convaincre que le ministere Francais n'a point cherche a nuiro 






APPENDIX. 659 

aux interets dcs Etats-Unis ; qu'il n'a fait ni d-marches ni insinuations 
quelconques pour entraver les ne"gociations dcs commissaires du Con- 
gres ; que je n'ai pas ete envoye dans cette vue en Angleterre ; que 
si, ce (jue nous avions ignore et ee que nous ne pouvions presumer, ils 
ont eu l'intention d'empi&er sur notre peehe, nous ne l'avons appris que 
par le ministere Anglais, et que s'ils ont echoue a cet dgard, connne 
cela devait etre, c'a ete uniquemcnt par le fait de ce menu- ministere. 

Je borne Ik mes reflexions, parcequ'elles vous suffiront surement 
pour apprecier les assertions faites en Ainerique, — pour en sentir 
toutes les maladresses (pour ne rien dire de plus). J'ajouterai seule- 
ment la remarque suivante : nous n'avions aucun interet a empecher 
les Americains de pecher eoncurremment avec les Anglais. Done, il 
n'est pas vraisemblable que nous ayons fait des efforts pour les priver 
de cet avantage ; et quand me me le ministere Francais eut eu une 
pareille intention, il n'aurait pas ete assez gauche pour la confier aux 
ministres Anglais, car il leur aurait donne par la des amies contre lui, 
et ils en auraient probablement abuse. 

Au surplus, il est possible que les personnes qui etaient a la tete de 
l'intrigue, dont m'a parle Milord Lansdowne, aient suppose ces memes 
insinuations pour tromper et egarer les plenipotentiaires Americains; 
et dans ce cas, ceux-ci auraient completement donne dans le piege. 
Je vous prie de remarquer que c'est immediatement apres l'arrivce de 
M. Laurens a Paris que la signature du traite eut lieu. Combinez 
avec tout cela ce que dit M. de Vergennes dans sa lettre particuliere du 
7 Decembre, et ce que m'a dit Milord Lansdowne. J'y ajouterai que 
vos commissaires auraient montre plus de sagacite, plus de penetration, 
et plus de prudence en se defiant des insinuations de leur ennemi, 
qu'en soupconnant la droiture, la loyaute, et les bonnes intentions bien 
eprouvees d'un allie. 

Je termine, Monsieur, cette longue lettre par un objet qui m'est ex- 
clusivement personnel : je veux parler de la navigation du Mississippi. 
M. Jay avait ete charge d'entamer une negociation avec M. le Comte 
d'Aranda relativement aux limites des Florides et de la Louisiane. Mais 
ces deux plenipotentiaires ne purent point s'entendre, parceque le pre- 
mier voulait porter les limites des Etats-Unis jusq'au Mississippi, et le 
second voulait porter les limites Espagnoles jusq'aux frontieres des 
Etats-Unis. lis me choisirent pour les rapprocher; et je leur donnai 
mon avis par ecrit. 

J'etablis, d'apres les preuves positives, que les pays sur lesquels 
portait la contestation etaient occupes par des hordes sauvages, qui 
n'avaient jamais reconnu la souverainete ni de l'Espagne ni de l'An- 



660 APPENDIX 

gleterre : (Toil il resultait que ces memes peuples dtaient mddpendants ; 
que, par consequent, la dispute entre les deux negociateurs etait sans 
objet. Je proposai, cependant, une ligne de demarcation eventuelle, 
pour le cas ou les deux etats feraient des conquetes sur les sauvages. 

Les deux plenipotentiaires adopterent mon avis ; et si je suis bien 
informe, le Congres s'en est montre satisfait, malgre l'aspect insidieux, 
sous lequcl il lui avait ete presente. Je dois ajouter qu'apres avoir 
remis uion avis a M. le Comte d'Aranda, ainsi qu'a M. Jay, je dis a l'un 
et a l'autre que le moyen le plus simple, selon moi, serait que l'Espagno 
ouvrit le Mississippi, et fit un port franc a la Nouvelle Orleans. Mon 
idee fut goutee ; mais elle n'eut aucune suite. Je dois ajouter, enfin, 
que j'avais communique mon travail a M. Jay, avant de le remettre a 
l'ambassadeur d'Espagne, et qu'il convint avec moi de sa justice et de 
sa solidite. 

J'ai l'honneur d'etre, avec la plus parfaite consideration, 

Monsieur, votre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur, 

PtAYNEVAL. 



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